Publication select ▼
MOUNT CLEMENS — Ongoing labor disputes between staff and management at McLaren Macomb hospital took a turn in early July as nurses and support staff went on strike.
Members of Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 40 took to the sidewalk along Harrington Street outside of the hospital from June 7-10, holding signs and chanting in response to working conditions and claims of unfair labor practices filed against the Grand Blanc-based hospital network.
“The service group itself has six unfair labor practices; the RNs have seven,” said Dina Carlisle, a nurse and OPEIU 40’s president. “As they occurred, we filed them. For the RNs it’s been a yearlong (process) leading up to seven (claims). For the service group it’s been two years that six unfair labor practices have been filed.”
Carlisle says the staffing conditions at the hospital see nurses regularly having to care for up to six patients at once. For comparison, intensive care unit nurses care for up to two patients at a time. The union says this workload leads to burnout, violates the agreed upon staffing matrix and creates potentially harmful conditions for patients.
“For the RNs, this is not about money. This is about staffing safely and being able to take the best care of our patients as we can,” Carlisle said.
The support staff group is seeking to increase its pay, which currently starts at $11.46 per hour and is below Michigan’s current minimum wage of $12.48. McLaren’s “last, best and final offer,” according to an OPEIU 40 statement, was a raise in 2026 that would increase the starting wage to $11.69. The union said that is still about 12% under the state minimum wage of $13.29 after the minimum wage increases again on Feb. 21, 2026.
Both the nursing and support groups have filed unfair labor practices against McLaren dating back to 2023. The claims involve direct dealing over wages and the firing of 11 members of the support staff.
During the strike, while passersby honked in support of the hospital workers and food and water were donated to those on the picket line, McLaren informed the union that 176 out-of-state strikebreakers had been called in to replace the over 400 nurses on strike. McLaren also prevented the union nurses from returning to work until the morning of July 12. OPEIU 40 has called upon Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel, Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido and Macomb County Sheriff Anthony Wickersham to investigate McLaren for violations of the 1962 Solicitation of Strikebreakers Act.
“In an update to us, it said that they brought in 176 — they name that number,” Carlisle said. “There are almost over 480 nurses here, and they did that for five days paying them $104 an hour. I found it fascinating that they would be silly enough to send that (update). They sent it to everyone. It wasn’t just us. They were trying to, I think, assure the community that the hospital was safely staffed, and I thought, ‘How did they figure that?’”
Despite the lockouts, strikebreakers and other unfair practice claims, Carlisle says the hospital reached out to the union by the morning of July 10 to resume negotiations. The union and the hospital planned to return to the bargaining table on Wednesday, July 23 and Monday, Aug. 4 to discuss the nursing and support groups, respectively.
“We are bargaining in good faith, and I am hopeful that we can resolve these issues,” Carlisle said. “It will be really unfortunate if the hospital does not seem receptive to safe staffing.”
On July 9, McLaren spokesperson Dave Jones issued a statement regarding the strike, stating the hospital brought in “licensed, credentialed temporary professionals” to support full-time staff during the strike.
“We’ve bargained in good faith for the past two years for the service unit and RNs, investing extensive time and resources to reach an agreement that honors our team members and ensures the long-term stability of our hospital — especially considering recently passed federal legislation that significantly reduces Medicaid reimbursements and threatens financial sustainability for health care providers across the country,” Jones’ statement said. “Despite those challenges, McLaren has presented a proposal that goes above and beyond what’s being seen in our region and even nationally. We believe all employees and our community deserve the full picture, and we’re confident if presented with the facts, many would view our offer as more than fair.”
McLaren’s offer for nurses as of the July 9 statement includes a 15.84% to 40.14% pay increase over three years, time-and-a-half pay for working over 36 hours in a week, annual tenure-based retention bonuses up to $1,000 and a nearly 16% pay increase if a unit is short staffed. Nurse staffing ratios would be at one nurse to 4.44-5.88 patients (1:4.44 to 1:5.88) for medical and surgical units, 1:1.76 for the ICU and 1:1.41 for obstetrics and gynecology units.
McLaren’s offer for support staff as of the July 9 statement includes “three-year agreement with equity increases of up to 15% based on years of service to recognize long-term dedication,” 2% annual salary increases and maintaining benefits.
McLaren has also filed its own unfair labor practice claims against OPEIU 40, citing a failure to bargain in good faith, surface and regressive bargaining, coercing and intimidating employees and deliberately delaying negotiations.
