The writer, a Los Angeles freelancer and former Detroit News business reporter, writes a blog, Starkman Approved.
By Eric Starkman
Spokesman Mark Geary
Corewell Health spokesman Mark Geary, who I’ve never regarded as a credible source of information, told the Detroit News this week that management of the former Beaumont Health hospital system believed that the majority of its nurses didn’t want a union.
Geary continues to bat 1,000.
Corewell’s 9,776 Metro Detroit nurses have voted overwhelmingly to join the Teamsters, a move that likely will result in improved patient care at Corewell’s eight Detroit-area hospitals and affiliated outpatient centers. These facilities have declined precipitously since former Beaumont CEO John Fox gave the hospital network and its $4 billion reserve to Grand Rapids-based Spectrum Health two years ago.
Fox walked away with at least a $10 million golden parachute, on top of the $50 million or so he received in compensation during his seven years of aggressive cost cutting. Spectrum merged its operations with Beaumont’s and rebranded the combined operations Corewell Health.
Studies show that when hospital nurses unionize, patient care improves and lives are saved.
Tina Freese Decker
If Geary was indeed sincere that Corewell’s management was confident its nurses didn’t want a union, that would further underscore the cluelessness of CEO Tina Freese Decker and her deputies. According to the final tally, 4,958 nurses voted in favor of organizing, while 2,957 voted no.
However, 418 ballots weren’t opened because they were challenged on technical grounds, indicating that even more nurses possibly supported the union drive. The challenged ballots won’t be resolved because the findings wouldn’t impact the already decisive victory.
Sarah Johnson, one of the Corewell union nurse organizers, told me she was confident the drive would succeed, although not necessarily by such a decisive margin.
Sarah Johnson
“I was confident we would win and that the nurses would see through all the union busting efforts,” Johnson said.
The union vote is a major embarrassment to Corewell CEO Freese Decker and yet another example of her questionable judgment and leadership. Fox, the former Beaumont CEO, admitted that he tried pawning Beaumont off on more than 100 other hospital systems, and Freese Decker proved to be the unlucky sucker.
Morale at the Beaumont hospitals was already low when Freese Decker agreed to take over Beaumont’s operations, and years earlier nurses at the flagship Royal Oak hospital attempted to unionize. Fox spent nearly $2 million on union busters to derail that effort.
Corewell’s Detroit area nurses also charged that hospital management engaged in intimidation tactics, prompting them to file more than 800 protests with the NLRB alleging unfair labor practices.
“That’s how dirty and corrupt they were,” said a union organizer.
Corewell’s union organizers studied the union busting playbook hospitals typically follow and educated their colleagues about the false union information they’d likely be hearing.
“Prepare for it. Expect it. Don’t Fall for it,” was the working motto.
The successful union drive of Corewell’s Detroit-area nurses will no doubt influence Corewell's nurses in Grand Rapids and other parts of western Michigan, where Spectrum’s operations were located and Freese Decker lives. Hospital executives despise nurses’ unions because they invariably command higher wages and safer working conditions, leaving less money to pocket for themselves.
Freese Decker was paid $4.4 million in 2022, according to the latest available filings.
Freese Decker, whose leadership and capabilities I’ve long questioned, was voted to chair the American Hospital Association beginning in January. The AHA is an organization that promotes the interests of hospital CEOs and vigorously opposes patient protection measures such as mandatory staffing levels and price transparency.
That the AHA will be led by a CEO responsible for one of the most successful union drives in hospital history should convince even diehard atheists of God’s existence.
Dave Hughes, the Teamsters official overseeing the Corewell East organizing drive, told me in late September he had already been contacted by nurses from Corewell West, as well as nurses working at Henry Ford, Ascension, and McLaren.
The Teamsters already have a proven record representing Michigan hospital workers. The union represents the nurse anesthetists serving Corewell’s Detroit-area hospitals. The anesthetists immediately moved to unionize after former Beaumont COO and registered nurse Carolyn Wilson pawned them off to a Texas-based outsourcing firm.
Individuals with ties to Corewell’s management contributed more than $124,000 to Kamala Harris’ presidential campaign, and more than $26,000 to Elissa Slotkin’s Senate campaign, according to public filings. By comparison, they gave only $21,152 to Trump’s campaign.
Perhaps that explains why a Michigan spokesman for Harris’ campaign didn’t respond when asked if the vice president supported nurses’ unions. During her presidential campaign, Harris expressed unwavering support for the UAW, which endorsed her for president and spent millions of its members’ union dues to support her failed candidacy.
The Teamsters didn’t endorse Harris or Trump.
I reached out to spokesman Mark Geary for comment. The John Fox management holdover rarely gets back to me, so unlike other Detroit area publications, my columns typically don’t include his shuck and jive.
For that I'm grateful.
