Chelsea Nurses' FAQs

Tuesday, May 19th

Wednesday, May 20th

Both days are in Woodlands A & B Conference Rooms - Basement (take the elevators by the cafeteria down one floor)

No, the secret ballot election is conducted by the National Labor Relations Board, a federal government agency. No one knows how you vote and it is illegal for management to monitor the polling place.

The National Labor Relations Board will count the ballots after the close of polls on Wednesday May 20th starting at 9:01pm.

Here are some of the issues identified by the Organizing Committee:

To be able to give the highest level of safe and effective patient care through enforceable safe staffing language
Transparent wages based on RN experience
Raises that reward and retain nurses
Safe floating with guaranteed orientation
Limiting mandatory cancellations
A real say in policies and procedures
Better benefits including retirement and health insurance
Better PTO accrual

YES! Click HERE to see a letter signed by politicians, local businesses, and other unions supporting nurses’ effort to unionize and calling on Ben Mills, President, Chelsea Hospital, to stop their anti-union actions. You can also see signs supporting Chelsea nurses at many businesses around town.

Hospitals always fight nurses organizing. Management will say all kinds of things which boil down to: MNA will tell you what to do. When in reality, WE ARE THE UNION, not MNA staff. We decide what we want in a contract, and what we are willing to do to win those demands. Almost every major decision in our union will be made by voting or consensus.
Right now, management can change whatever they want, whenever they want.  Do you trust management to make it better on their own? If forming a union didn’t do anything, why is management spending time meeting with you one-on-one?
Once you win your election and have a union, that ends! By forming a union, you have the right to bargain AS EQUALS with management and collectively advocate for yourselves and your patients.

Dues are $69.55 a month ($834.60 a year).
No one pays dues until RNs vote on our first contract and it’s been implemented!
The average first contract gains far exceed dues. Sparrow got 16.5%+ raises over three years and U of M got 22%+ over 4 years.

No one is ever required to be a union member, but at many MNA facilities everyone at least pays for the representation they receive from their union, even if they are not a member, because the members decided to fight for a “union (united) shop” vs. “open or split shop.” When everyone pays for representation, there is a greater basis for building unity. We have more power to demand better pay, benefits, and working conditions. But this is something that must be bargained for.

Members decide to strike, not some other group of people. A strong majority must vote yes in a secret ballot vote, or the strike will not succeed.
99% of all MNA negotiations have been settled without strikes.
Strikes are a last resort, but nurses have won great contracts as a result. The best way to avoid strikes is to be prepared and able to run them. There are many other ways to get a good contract like petitions, delegations, media campaigns, involving the community, and other forms of collective activity.

The hospital must maintain the status quo, which means they cannot make drastic cuts AND if they always give a raise or step increase at a certain time, they should legally continue doing so. For example, when Sparrow Home Care was bargaining their first contract, management attempted to not give annual raises. Union members pushed back, and management agreed they were wrong and gave everyone their normal raises.