Total revenue for patient care has increased by 33% between 2017 and 2022.  The institution is in an excellent financial position to meet our wage interests as Michigan Medicine is regularly raking in hundreds of millions of dollars over the cost of its expenditures.  

Your bargaining team, after working all day, spent another 4 hours presenting proposals on salaries, additional pay for additional on-call, paid leave, paid time off, and vacation.  We also included language on work hours and work schedules which proposed a financial remedy for those House Officers that were not provided with their schedule 30 days in advance.  

Jaclyn Mauch from Plastic Surgery used her past experience in the business world to construct a model showing how inflation and the cost of living have eroded what wage gains the union was able to bargain in the last contract.

Wade Baughman was quick to comment that the administration had no interest in recognizing inflation and the cost of living in how they compensate our members, (or other employees for that matter), but they would listen.  

HOA president and Urology Chief resident, Kyle Johnson, explained that "sometimes you need a carrot and sometimes you need a stick. This is a stick," when discussing the need for a remedy in the contract to address the issue of our members not receiving their schedules as agreed to in 2020.  

It was noted by Robin Tarter that House Officers felt similarly to other employee groups as evidenced by the results of the Employee Engagement Survey from 2022.  One of the overarching sentiments in the Survey results was that "Michigan Medicine Management is very top-down, disconnected from those providing care, and uninterested in our input.”  

Thank your bargaining team and staff as they provided an "ear-full" and were extremely well prepared.   The administration appeared to be listening, but only time will tell if what they heard will make a difference in how you are compensated.