A Detroit Medical Center-affiliated hospital has been hit with charges of multiple labor violations from the National Labor Relations Board.
The NLRB complaint is based on claims from nurses at Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital, who allege that hospital leadership threatened them for trying to improve working conditions and barred a union representative from the hospital’s campus.
The nurses, who are represented by an affiliate of the Michigan Nurses Association, also claim they were refused the right to meet with labor representatives and that executives refused to provide information the nurses needed for collective bargaining.
Nurses and leaders at Huron Valley have been engaged in contract discussions since May 2016 and have yet to reach an agreement.
A hearing before an administrative law judge is set for Nov. 5.
Huron Valley, as an affiliate of DMC, is owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare, which bought Detroit Medical Center and its associated hospitals in 2013. The nurses lay much of the blame for the ongoing dispute at Tenet’s feet.
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“We formed our union to stand up for our patients. Our hospital should be working with us, not against us,” Kathleen Lehman, a recovery nurse and president of the Professional Nursing Association of Huron Valley-Sinai Hospital, said in a statement.
“Instead, they’re taking orders from Texas and fighting us at every turn—interfering with our meetings, trying to stop us from talking to each other about our workplace,” Lehman added. “That’s not only wrong an unfair—it's illegal.”
Nurses in the DMC system have also claimed that its hospitals have drastically cut back on charity care spending after being acquired by Tenet.
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MNA Executive Director John Karebian also said in the statement that Tenet has “mangled a long-standing relationship with Wayne State Medical School” and is demoting physicians who criticize the quality of patient care.
Representatives from Detroit Medical Center had not responded to a request for comment from FierceHealthcare at the time of publication, but in a statement issued to Crain’s Detroit Business, the hospital said that it has been negotiating with the nurses at Huron Valley in good faith.
“The parties continue to meet regularly and HVSH has met all obligations to bargain in good faith,” DMC said. “HVSH is optimistic that the parties can reach mutual agreement in the near future. HVSH denies all unfair labor practices charges and looks forward to prevailing on these charges in the scheduled November 5, 2018 National Labor Relations board proceeding.”
Sources told Crain’s that DMC’s CEO Tony Tedeschi, M.D., was planning to visit Huron Valley to meet with hospital management and potentially some of the nurses.