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November 20, 2003Teamsters: Arbitration could end the strikeNMH administrators unimpressed with ideaByRecord-Eagle staff writer PETOSKEY - Teamsters representatives offered Wednesday to end a more than year-long nurses strike if Northern Michigan Hospital management agrees to binding arbitration. "(Striking nurses) are not going to go back without a contract, and this enables us to get a contract, in the fairest way possible," said Teamsters Local 406 attorney Ted Iorio, the striking nurses' representative. Under the union's plan, the two sides would appoint a mutually agreed upon, neutral third party to arbitrate. After presenting their respective cases, the two sides would then agree to accept the arbitrator's determinations on all outstanding contract points. "We're challenging them," Iorio said of hospital management. "We're saying, 'Let's stand on the merits of our respective positions.' " Hospital administrators were immediately cool to the overture. "We have a responsibility to our patients and to our community to provide quality patient care. We have no intentions of giving that up to a third-party arbitrator," said hospital spokesman Thomas Spencer. The two sides haven't negotiated a contract since about half of the hospital's then-470 nurses went on strike on Nov. 14, 2002. The work stoppage is one of the longest uninterrupted nursing strikes in U.S. history. Some area residents expressed support for arbitrating the impasse. "They are not getting anywhere doing what they are doing," said Christine Fireoved of Emmet County's Bear Creek Township. Added Levering resident Keith Tripp, "I think that would be a good idea. Somebody should settle it for them." The hospital spent more than $5 million on replacement nurses at the beginning of the strike in late 2002, according to recently released financial statements. Petoskey resident Marjory Priest said hospital management instead should have used that money toward a new contract for its nurses. Priest said she supported the union's offer to have a third party settle the labor dispute. "Maybe neither one of them will like it," she said. "But when you've had a strike this long. ..." ALSO READ: Northern Michigan Hospital Teamsters Petoskey page U.S. Department of Labor
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