Below is an update on our fourth bargaining session, which took place on August 6.
Tentative Agreements and Progress Made
We are pleased to have reached tentative agreements on several provisions including recognition, union representatives list, and non-discrimination. Tentative agreements demonstrate the parties’ commitment to the collective bargaining process. You can learn more about the parties’ tentative agreements by clicking here.
We also made progress refining non-economic proposal language made at previous sessions, including those related to seniority, probationary period, management rights, bulletin boards, and a grievance procedure.
Finally, at the Teamsters’ request, we agreed to move the September 8th and 9th bargaining dates to September 17th and 18th.
Unpaid Leave for Negotiations
The Teamsters renewed their request for Corewell Health to allow their bargaining committee members the option to take unpaid leave for negotiations but still accrue PTO while on unpaid leave. We declined this proposal for the same reasons we declined previously. We welcome the committee’s participation and are committed to working with them to accommodate their schedules whenever possible. Our policies require team members to use paid time-off when they are absent for personal reasons, and we don’t intend to deviate from our policy.
We also clarified with the Teamsters that bargaining committee members will not be subject to any discipline for taking approved time off to participate in negotiations.
We’re grateful for the continued effort and care shown by all involved and look forward to continuing our work on August 7 and 8.