Corewell Health nurse highlights effort to form nurses union

METRO DETROIT — Lisa Vergos has been a nurse with Corewell Health — formerly Beaumont Hospital — for approximately 20 years.

Corewell has multiple locations, including in Farmington Hills, Royal Oak and Troy.

Vergos is a research nurse clinician at Corewell’s hospital in Royal Oak.

According to Vergos, nurses at Royal Oak Beaumont attempted to form a union in 2019, but the effort failed, due to resistance from the hospital and COVID-19 constraints.

Recently, talks about forming a union began again, but this time it involves more than just the nurses at the Royal Oak location.

“Corewell Health now encompasses everything that was Spectrum. Spectrum Health on the west side of the state merged with Beaumont, and then they renamed it Corewell Health,” Vergos said. “Anything that held the Beaumont name is Corewell Health East, and that’s where we stopped our campaign.”

Vergos shared what led to the renewed effort to unionize.

“In a post-COVID world, the nurses —  everywhere, I’m guessing — would hope that things would’ve changed after all the work that we did during COVID and all the risks that we took during COVID, but no. Corporate greed being what it is, they continue to line their pockets and do what they need to do,” she said. “We get more and more work. We get more and more patients. They don’t give us raises; if they do, it’s like 2% and we should be grateful.”

One of Vergos’ primary concerns is the nurse-to-patient ratio.

“There’s a best practice for the nurse-to-patient ratio. If it’s an ICU nurse, it’s one to two patients. If it’s progressive care, it’s one nurse for every three patients,” she said. “Especially on the med (surgery) units, they continuously go over those patient ratios and they always (say), ‘Well, we don’t have enough nurses.’ Then hire more nurses. … Pay them better, give them better benefits, treat them the way they should be treated, and you’ll have every nurse you want to have.”

Corewell Health sent a statement about Corewell Health East nurses attempting to unionize.

“We are aware of union organizing activity taking place at some of our hospitals,” the statement reads. “We respect team members’ right to choose to be represented by a union or to remain union free. We will continue to provide team members with information about unions, how unionization affects health care organizations, and our strong preference to maintain a direct working relationship with the incredible team members who serve our patients and communities.”

At press time, Corewell did not respond to the specific concerns brought up by Vergos, including her interest in nurses receiving higher wages and the nurse-to-patient ratio.

“We called the Teamsters, and within 48 hours I met with them and had cards in my hand to start signing,” Vergos said. “We are in our campaign. … We are collecting physical signatures, electronic signatures. We are holding meetings. … We’ve collected quite a bit of signatures, which I will not say (the amount).”

Vergos shared what the requirement is for a nurses’ union to be formed.

“To call for a vote, you need 30% of the total (nurse) population to sign cards saying that they have an interest in the union,” she said. “When you get 30% you can legally go to the National Labor (Relations) Board and petition for a vote. To win the vote, when you finally get your vote, you have to have a majority plus one.”

Vergos said that she signed the first card in October.

She estimated that there are between 8,000 and 9,000 nurses at Corewell Health East.

It is not yet known when a vote may be called.

“I don’t think that we’re going to fail getting a petition to vote,” Vergos said. “If for some reason we don’t win the day then I think what would happen is we would have to wait a year to call another vote, and we would have to continue to work hard. … There’s a huge fear in the nursing world about unionizing. … It’s a legitimate fear, and it keeps a lot of nurses from stepping forward.”

The risk of losing her job as a result of her attempt to form a nurse’s union is one that Vergos is willing to take.

“We deserve a seat at the table when it comes to how units are staffed, what our wages should be (and) where we are with seniority,” she said. “We can negotiate with the union to get our ratios. We can negotiate better wages for ourselves. … We feel we’re within our right to stand and fight and unionize so we can get what we need.”