KALAMAZOO, Mich. — After months of failed contract negotiation talks between the unionized nurses at Borgess Hospital and their parent company Ascension, their contract expired on Friday.
Saturday, the Michigan Nurses Association picketed in front of the hospital on Gull Road.
“What we’re seeking in this contract is wages that will recruit and retain nurses. A contract that is fair and allows us to keep our personal leave,” said Lori Batzloff, president of Michigan Nurses Association Borgess Staff Council. “We are done making concessions. We’ve been asked to give up our personal leave guarantees. We’ve been asked to give up our retirement.”
Batzloff, who’s a registered nurse at Borgess in the neurotrauma intensive care unit, said that they’ve also been asked to work on weekends as well, and have gone through a few wage freezes.
"If the nurses are outside, there's something wrong inside," Batzloff told FOX17.
“The number one reason that it is so important is for the patient’s safety,” said Dana DeKoekkoek, who’s also with the MNA and a nurse at Borgess. “We’ve all wanted our patients safe and to be cared for in the best possible manner that we possibly can. So, we just feel there are some concessions in the contract that we cannot make at this time in good conscience to make sure that our patients are getting the best care possible.”
Dekoekkoek is a pre-op and post-op nurse in the outpatient short stay department. She said her individual team isn’t directly impacted but many nurses are burned out. Throughout the years, many have left due to the loss of benefits and stagnant wages.
“When I first started there at Borgess we had over 600 nurses here employed by Borgess Hospital,” Batzloff said. “Since then those numbers have gone down to 400. The fact is because Ascension has refused to stop the wage freeze and re-open the contract on wages. And, nurses went where the grass was greener.”
Fox 17 reached out to Ascension for an interview or statement. They provided us the following statement via email, which states in full:
“We respect the right of unions to hold an informational assembly outside our facility. As with any event of this kind, the safety and security of our patients, visitors, associates, providers and picketers is our first priority.”
“We continue to bargain in good faith to reach a mutually beneficial agreement on our RN contract. Our ongoing goal is to support all of our associates in a just and equitable manner as we continue to provide safe, compassionate care to those we are privileged to serve. We feel our current offer supports this goal on all levels, including an average RN wage increase of 19% in the first year of the contract, and additional raises for the following two years.”
MNA said there’s more to negotiate, especially surrounding wages. It’s what’s needed to hire and keep nurses, they said.
“You have to have competitive wages to entice somebody to come work for you,” DeKoekkoek said. “We’ve had nurses that have been here — and good nurses — and we’ve lost some to others to facilities that can pay more. So, you need to be really competitive to get the good nurses to come in. And, that’s what we want. We just want a great team like we’ve been trying hard to be. But we have some holes we need to fill on our team.”
