Nurses at Upper Peninsula Health System-Marquette (Mich.) voted Tuesday to authorize a strike.
The vote does not necessarily mean a strike will take place. However, it does allow the nurses' bargaining team to call a walkout.
The Michigan Nurses Association, which represents the workers, said in a news release it has been in contract negotiations with hospital administration for about four months. Nurses' two-month contract extension expired earlier this summer.
Now, the hospital can avert a strike "if our patient safety concerns are addressed," said Scott Balko, RN and president of the UPHS-Marquette RN Staff Council/MNA.
Victor Harrington, regional marketing director of UPHS-Marquette, told The Mining Journal via email the two sides are slated to resume negotiations through the end of next month, "and we remain optimistic that those negotiations will eventually conclude with a collective bargaining agreement that meets the needs of all parties."
He added, "The Michigan Nurses Association reportedly worked very hard to convince an undisclosed number of UP Health System-Marquette employees to vote in the affirmative in [this week's] strike authorization vote. Notwithstanding the reported result of that vote, we are encouraged by the many employees who have expressed their opposition to this tactic by the MNA, and who are dismayed by the union's recent public attacks that portray their hospital in such an inaccurate, inflammatory and damaging light."
UPHS-Marquette is part of Brentwood, Tenn.-based Duke LifePoint Healthcare.