LANSING — Nearly 400 UM Health-Sparrow employees in the Lansing area recently learned they could be outsourced to companies headquartered outside of Michigan, raising concerns about pay, vacations and a slew of other matters as officials pursue the partnerships.
UM Health-Sparrow Lansing announced May 28 plans to outsource environmental services, such as housekeeping and biohazard removal, to Xanitos in Pennsylvania and food and nutrition services to TouchPoint Support Services in Georgia.
“Our task now is to prepare for the financial headwinds we anticipate over the next several years due to Medicare and Medicaid reimbursement challenges, while sharpening the focus on our core mission of advancing health to better serve Mid-Michigan and our communities,” U-M Health-Sparrow spokesman John Foren said in the statement. “This will allow us to focus on what we do best, taking care of our patients and the community.”
Foren emphasized June 3 that contracts have not been finalized and partnerships with the companies remain in the evaluation stages.
“We have letters of intent we’ve signed, which only means we intend to pursue continued talks with them to get a contract, but we haven’t signed any contracts yet,” Foren said. “So it’s not a done deal per se.”
The United Auto Workers Local 4911 represents about 2,400 UM Health-Sparrow Lansing employees, including the 379 workers to be outsourced. The outsourced workers get paid roughly $16 to $25 an hour and have been working under a new contract that began in February, Local President Kim Wheeler said.
“There’s a lot of concerns about their pay, their benefits, what happens with all of the things that they voted for in our collective bargaining agreement, what does it mean for them,” Wheeler said. “It’s a scary thing to go from one employer to another employer and still be at the same place doing the same job.
“There’s a lot of uncertainty. There’s a lot of anxiety, and that anxiety is throughout the hospital. We have other members saying, ‘Well, if they did it to them, who’s next?’ “
Wheeler said the new contract should cover the affected workers until Xanitos and TouchPoint have full control of the environmental and food and nutrition services, which she has been told will happen in September. Then Local 4911 would begin bargaining a new agreement with the two companies, she said.
“We were told that each of the vendors are willing to recognize the UAW as the bargaining agent for each of these groups, so we would have to go back in and negotiate new contracts for them,” Wheeler said, noting that UAW representatives are now reviewing the outsourcing decision to make sure everything was done properly and members don’t lose out.
“We don’t stand in agreement with this outsourcing,” Wheeler added. “We were not informed at all. We had no clue that they were even looking to decide to outsource, even through negotiations, none of that.”
In its statement, UM Health-Sparrow Lansing said Xanitos already provides environmental services for UM Health-West in the Grand Rapids area, and Unidine, TouchPoint’s sister company, has been providing food services there.
“Because of their scale, expertise and broad client base, they are able to secure more competitive pricing on goods and services and bring industry-leading best practices to our environmental services and culinary services,” Foren said in the statement. “We also expect their technology and operational expertise to support continued improvement in service, quality, consistency and performance measures.
“Their best-in-class training programs for both new and current staff lead to greater retention of employees and improve staff satisfaction. We believe this will not only improve service to our patients but protect the resources of our health system so we can continue to provide care in the Lansing area for another 130 years.”
Wheeler said she’s been told Xanitos and TouchPoint have better technology and training for workers.
“We’re trying to take them at face value,” Wheeler said, “but because they weren’t transparent with us — that they were looking for the outsources — it’s kind of difficult for us to believe.”
Contact editor Susan Vela at svela@lsj.com or 248-873-7044. Follow her on Twitter @susanvela.
This article originally appeared on Lansing State Journal: UM Health-Sparrow moving to outsource nearly 400 employees
Reporting by Susan Vela, Lansing State Journal / Lansing State Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
By Susan Vela, Lansing State Journal | USA TODAY Network
