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More than 9,600 Corewell Health nurses vote this week on whether to unionize

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More than 9,600 Corewell Health nurses vote this week on whether to unionize

Nov 11, 2024 | 1:53 pm ET
By Jon King
More than 9,600 Corewell Health nurses vote this week on whether to unionize
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A major union election is set this week for nearly ten thousand nurses at eight hospitals in Southeast Michigan. 

The petition for a union election was filed Sept. 27 with the National Labor Relations Board’s (NLRB) Region 7-Detroit office for 9,618 nurses at Corewell Health Southeast Michigan in Southfield. Corewell was previously known as Beaumont. 

The three-day vote, which will take place Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, will decide whether union representation will be granted to Nurses for Nurses, a Committee of Michigan Teamsters Joint Council No. 43. 

The NLRB says this will be one of the largest petitions for an election in recent history, noting for context that the 2022 union vote at Amazon in Staten Island involved about 8,300 employees, while the UAW vote for workers at the Mercedes plant in Alabama covered 5,200 workers.

Recently, nearly 2,700 medical workers represented by SEIU Healthcare Michigan ratified a three-year agreement with Michigan Medicine.

Eligible voters for the Corewell election covers both full-time and regular part-time registered nurses, including casual nurses, contingent nurses, flex nurses, and charge nurses. The final estimate of eligible voters won’t be reported until the NLRB Regional Office issues the tally of ballots. 

Voting will take place at nine locations: Corewell Health Beaumont hospitals in Grosse Pointe, Troy, Royal Oak, Farmington Hills, Wayne, Taylor, Trenton, and Dearborn, as well as at the Corewell Service Center in Southfield.

The NLRB Regional Office will begin tallying the votes at 9 a.m. Friday at its Detroit office, with officials saying the count is expected to take several hours. Election results will be made public once the count is complete.