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Nearly 10,000 Michigan nurses at Corewell Health East voted to unionize in November 2024, forming Teamsters Local 2024. It was the easiest “yes” we’ve ever said.

But almost a year after winning our union fair and square, our bosses have used every trick in the book to draw out negotiations and deny us a contract. This is exactly why we need the Faster Labor Contracts Act. This bipartisan federal legislation would ensure that once workers vote to organize, a union contract will go into effect in a timely manner.

With a combined 30 years of nursing experience across a variety of specialties like critical care and nursing education, we know firsthand that Corewell’s delay tactics are taking a toll on the people at our patients’ bedsides. Instead of respecting our victory, they have used delay as a weapon.

This is nothing new. Corewell has done everything in their power to challenge our rights to collectively bargain, including spending nearly $2 million on union-busting consultants during our organizing campaign. It’s a numbers game, and corporations like Corewell drag things out long enough in an attempt to weaken us and break our union.

It will not work, but that is the danger of allowing contract campaigns to drag on for months or years. Time itself becomes the company’s most powerful union-busting tool, and the Faster Labor Contracts Act would put a stop to that.

This legislation would require employers to begin negotiating no later than 10 days after workers have voted to form a union, rather than the seven months it took for Corewell to come to the table in our case. It would ensure that if no agreement is reached within 90 days, the dispute would be referred to mediation.

If mediation were to fail within an additional 30 days or a period agreed upon between the parties, the dispute would be referred to binding arbitration to secure an initial contract. This means that bargaining agreements would be reached and ratified in a maximum of 130 days, a sea change from the months and even years it takes now. This legislation doesn’t favor one side — it ensures a fair and timely process for everyone involved.

Without these protections, nurses and patients are the ones who pay the price. We are already overworked, understaffed, and treated as disposable. Every delay in bargaining means another delay in fixing staffing issues, in retaining experienced nurses, and in giving patients the safe and quality care they deserve.

Corewell Teamsters nurses have given everything to get here, and we don’t deserve to be punished for demanding dignity and safety at work. We fought too hard to be ignored, and we cannot let time break us.

The Faster Labor Contracts Act would finally level the playing field. It would give working people across this country a fair chance at the contracts they’ve already earned and stop corporations from slow-walking negotiations into the ground.

As Teamsters, we never back down from a fight and we will keep fighting for safe staffing, fair pay, and the working conditions nurses and patients deserve. But we need this legislation to level the playing field. We urge our lawmakers to pass this bill and give working people a path to win the contracts we deserve.

The post Fighting for Fair and Fast Contracts appeared first on CounterPunch.org.

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