Thousands of Corewell Health nurses could picket after voting to authorize a strike, the union representing the nurses said Tuesday.
Nearly 90% of registered nurses in the nine Corewell Health East (formerly known as Beaumont Health) hospitals in southeast Michigan voted in support of a potential strike, Teamsters said in a press release.
Nurses are demanding “safe nurse-to-patient ratios, fair wages, affordable health insurance, and improved workplace safety,” according to Teamsters.
“This overwhelming strike vote shows that nurses are done being bullied into silence while executives put profits over patients and gamble with our safety and our licenses,” said Rachel Szadyr, a Corewell cardiac nurse who is a member of the bargaining committee.
Teamsters Local 2024 represents about 10,000 nurses at Corewell Health East. The union said the employees have been negotiating their first union contract since June 2025.
In December, Teamsters Local 2024 said negotiations “collapsed” after the health system decided to cancel a student loan repayment program and eliminate “pull pay,” which ensures a higher wage when nurses are “pulled” from their primary unit to work in another.
A Corewell Health spokesperson said the vote will not affect the health system’s approach to ongoing negotiations.
“We care about our nurses and have made significant investments in wages and benefits. We remain committed to reaching an agreement with the Teamsters,” said Mark Geary, Corewell’s senior director of communications, in a statement. “The results of the strike authorization vote will not change our approach, and we believe talk of a strike is premature. Neither side has made a final offer, and we will continue to bargain in good faith.”
The nurses voted to unionize in November 2024, seeking the right to bargain over wages, benefits and staffing ratios. Teamsters said that, in the 16 months since then, management has “continued to attack nurses and violate labor law by withholding several economic opportunities that were given to nonunion employees.”
“The clock is ticking for Corewell Health East to offer Teamsters nurses the contract they deserve — or 10,000 nurses will take this fight to the streets,” said Tom Erickson, lead negotiator and Teamsters Central Region international vice president, in the release. “This greedy corporate hospital system spent millions to try to stop these nurses from becoming Teamsters and now they are hemorrhaging even more money on anti-union attorneys who want to keep workers from getting the best possible contract.”
mreinhart@detroitnews.com
@max_detroitnews
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Michigan’s Corewell Health East nurses vote to authorize strike
Reporting by Max Reinhart, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
