Community leaders, elected officials, and business owners have signed on to the letter below to Chelsea Hospital President Ben Miles in support of Chelsea RNs organizing to form their union.

Mr. Ben Miles
President, Chelsea Hospital

Dear Mr. Miles,
We are writing in support of the registered nurses at Chelsea Hospital as they organize to form their union with the Michigan Nurses Association.

When nurses have a strong collective voice in their workplace and their practice, everyone benefits – nurses, patients, and the community. The nurses are organizing for:

• Better nurse staffing to ensure they have the resources to provide safe, quality care to every patient
• Competitive and transparent wages with guaranteed raises, which will increase the hospital’s ability to retain and recruit skilled nurses working in the community
• Affordable and improved benefits for themselves and their families

Chelsea Hospital nurses have the legal right to form a union without intimidation, retaliation, and fear-mongering from administration. We are disturbed to hear reports of alleged anti-union actions by Chelsea administrators, which include surveilling of nurses’ union activities or creating the impression of surveillance; threatening to eliminate non-nurse positions if nurses form their union; promising benefits and favored treatment to nurses if they oppose the organizing effort; and taking nurses away from patient care to hold one-on-one or group meetings to deliver anti-union messages and materials.

Chelsea Hospital should live up to its stated values, which align with the nurses’ organizing goals: reverence, by honoring the dignity of every person in having a real voice; integrity, by upholding moral principles and ethics as nurses organize; and safety, by staffing the units based on patient acuity to prevent patient harm.

Instead, Chelsea administration’s anti-union actions, if accurately portrayed, reflect poorly on the reputation of both Trinity Health and University of Michigan Health, as joint owners of Chelsea Hospital.

We demand that Chelsea Hospital administrators immediately cease these actions and respect the nurses’ rights to form their union. Chelsea Hospital has long been a source of pride for our community, and we proudly support the nurses as they organize for better working conditions for themselves and safer care for the community and our region.

Letter Signers