The Power of Solidarity! The only thing more powerful than a union is unions banding together. MNA is helping to grow this movement by leading coalitions that consolidate the power of nurses and other health care workers to counter the increasingly corporate mentality of the health care industry. One example is bringing together multiple McLaren Health Care workplaces. A coalition of Michigan health care unions has jointly condemned McLaren’s lack of transparency, many filing a charge that the health system has violated federal labor law by withholding information from frontline workers. McLaren workers in MNA and the other unions across hospital campuses all wore stickers the same day in protest (see picture below). The outrage comes amid McLaren executives’ refusal to cap their salaries at $1 million each year. The coalition has called for the over $8 million that would be saved from executive compensation caps to be reinvested in the frontlines. Shortly after the protests and Unfair Labor Practice charges, McLaren began to provide the requested information about its PPE inventory. The other unions in the McLaren coalition are AFSCME Local 875, AFSCME Local 2650, IAEP Local 804, OPEIU Local 459, Teamsters Local 332, SEIU Healthcare Michigan, OPEIU Local 40, and UNITE HERE! Local 688. A second coalition is bringing together health care workers in the Ascension system in Michigan and Wisconsin. The other unions in the coalition are WFNHP, OPEIU Local 40, and the Teamsters. Together, these workers are demanding that Ascension provide contractually guaranteed safe staffing at all hospitals to prepare in the event of a second wave of COVID; cut executive compensation to reinvest in the front line; and treat all front-line workers with respect and dignity. The Michigan Nurses Association has also been a proud member of the All Campus Labor Council (ACLC) at the University of Michigan -- which began to regularly hold meetings in 2018. The more that workers pool our power, the louder our voices become. | 
