Trinity Grand Haven Hospital staff set to strike on Aug. 4
Following seven months on the bargaining desk, unionized staff at Trinity Well being Grand Haven Hospital in West Michigan stated Tuesday they’ll maintain a one-day strike on Aug. 4 to protest understaffing and low wages, amongst different points.
Near 200 staff represented by SEIU Healthcare Michigan are set to strike over what workers and union leaders describe as dangerous religion bargaining, inadequate wages, and makes an attempt to undermine the union. The unionized staff, whose contract expired Feb. 28, embrace diagnostic imaging techs, lab assistants, housekeepers, dietary staff, social staff, affected person care associations, and medics, amongst different positions.
Trinity Grand Haven staff famous the strike can be held throughout the Coast Guard Competition – which hospital workers stated in a press launch brings in about 350,000 guests to a metropolis of about 11,000 individuals and “causes a pressure on all providers.”
“Low wages are leading to recruiting and retention issues throughout our hospital, usually forcing us to work short-staffed,” Beth Ruiter, a medical technologist at Trinity Grand Haven, stated in a ready assertion. “Our neighborhood has invested on this hospital for many years, they usually count on higher care. We’re happening strike as a result of it’s time for Trinity to spend money on staff. We should restore this hospital to being the pillar of the neighborhood it as soon as was.”
In an announcement emailed by a Trinity Well being spokesperson, Amy Rotter, Trinity Well being Grand Haven stated it’s “dedicated to negotiating in good religion with the collective bargaining union masking our colleagues who assist the care of our sufferers.
“Finishing these contracts and caring for our colleagues and our neighborhood are high priorities and important to our mission,” Trinity continued in its assertion. “We absolutely assist their proper to take part in – or chorus from taking part in – union actions. We observe the foundations.”
Trinity stated in its assertion that the Aug. 4 strike “might require closing key hospital operations and redirecting affected person care.
“Nonetheless, Trinity Well being Grand Haven is planning accordingly to assist our neighborhood and supply the mandatory providers that they could want throughout this time,” the Trinity assertion concluded.
Trinity Well being acquired North Ottawa Group Hospital in October 2022, and the power was renamed Trinity Well being Grand Haven Hospital. At the moment, about 200 hospital staff voted to affiliate with SEIU.
“We had been a free-standing neighborhood hospital for over 100 years earlier than we had been bought by Trinity Well being,” stated Ricky Kauffman, a lead radiographer on the Grand Hospital hospital. “We had been capable of function due to the immense quantity of assist we obtained from the neighborhood. Now we have seen the standard of care turn into drastically challenged due to the staffing disaster. We would like the neighborhood to know what’s occurring contained in the hospital and the way centered we’re on enhancing the standard of care and assist our sufferers obtain.”
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