More than 2,300 healthcare workers at Ann Arbor-based University of Michigan Health, the clinical operation of Michigan Medicine, have joined the Service Employees International Union Healthcare Michigan.
The union announced the newly organized workers on March 26, saying that the workers won union recognition with SEIU Healthcare Michigan after a card check on March 18.
The National Labor Relations Board provides various paths to forming a union. According to the labor board's website, the NLRB will conduct an election if at least 30% of workers sign cards or a petition indicating their support for unionization. Workers would then vote on whether to unionize. Employers may also voluntarily recognize a union based on signed union-authorization cards or other evidence.
New union members at University of Michigan Health include patient care techs, phlebotomists and phlebotomist specialists, unit clerks, unit hosts, patient service assistants, patient services intermediate, patient services associates, and patient services senior, according to a union news release.
They will join 283 Michigan Medicine registered respiratory therapists and techs who previously organized with SEIU Healthcare Michigan last July, the union said.
"As a patient service associate, we play a vital part in our patients' recovery," Willie Griggs, a patient service associate at C.S. Mott Children's Hospital for five years, said in the release. "We make sure patients have a positive first interaction with the University of Michigan health system. I grew up in a union family in the auto industry and I saw the benefits and protections it provided them. A union at the University of Michigan gives us a voice to express our concerns and be heard in the workplace."
A spokesperson for Michigan Medicine told Becker's, "I don't have anything to add at this time."
SEIU Healthcare Michigan said it is continuing efforts to organize more than 2,000 additional workers at Michigan Medicine, including call center representatives, administrative assistants, associates, seniors and specialists, financial counselors, medical billing staff, and others in the patient service job family.