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  • Trinity Health Ann Arbor Lab Workers Win Union Election
  • Lab workers overcame a vicious anti-union campaign that included threats, coercion, intimidation, and wrongful terminations
  • Last March, Trinity Health fired 11 pro-union laboratory workers after they protested the loss of a frontline manager who refused to illegally search employees’ private property.
  • SEIU Healthcare Michigan filed for an injunction on behalf of the terminated workers which would order Trinity Health to reinstate the workers to their former jobs
  • Trinity’s union attacks are out of step with rising public opposition to corporate interference with worker organizing and dignity in the workplace 

Ann Arbor, Mich. – About 70 lab workers from Trinity Health Outpatient Laboratories have won their Union election despite an anti-union campaign in which Trinity Health terminated 11 lab workers for organizing a union and their manager who supported them.

“No matter where you live, where you work, or what your job title is, every worker deserves to have a union and the ability to improve conditions in your workplace. We are celebrating this hard-fought union victory after we overcame a vicious anti-union campaign by Trinity which included threats, coercion, intimidation, and the wrongful termination of 12 of my coworkers. Trinity followed every step in the union-busting playbook and still lost the election. Now, it’s time to raise our voices to ensure that measures are implemented so that we can feel safe and secure at our workplaces. We will continue to fight to ensure that our colleagues are reinstated to their jobs after Trinity wrongfully terminated them,” said Jozie Turman, Lab Tech at Trinity Health Outpatient Laboratories.

The lab workers began organizing a union with SEIU in January because of multiple worker and patient safety incidents that Trinity Health had failed to address. After learning of the union campaign, Trinity began hosting anti-union meetings in an attempt to discourage unionization. Despite this, union support continued to grow. 

In response, Trinity Health ordered the lab’s clinical manager to go through the worker’s belongings to look for Union materials. The manager refused, and they were terminated. This termination created panic among the lab workers, and they were given permission and encouragement to leave by the lab lead, who called them individually to inform them of the termination and an option to clock out early.  However, Trinity prevented the workers from returning to work that week and then used it as an excuse to permanently terminate 11 pro-union workers. 

SEIU Healthcare Michigan has filed a 10(j) injunction on behalf of the terminated workers which would order Trinity Health to reinstate the workers immediately to their former jobs. The injunction is currently being considered and is before the National Labor Relations Board.

Trinity Grand Haven Hospital Workers Announce Unfair Labor Practice Strike for August 4th

On July 21st, 200 workers at Trinity Grand Haven Hospital delivered a notice for an Unfair Labor Practice strike for Friday, August 4th, at 6am.  This will occur during Grand Haven’s annual Coast Guard Festival. After 7 months at the bargaining table, Union workers say that Trinity has negotiated in bad faith and has failed to make an investment in the Grand Haven community by offering low wages to its employees.