Federal Judge Rejects Detroit Hospital Executives' Demand That Class Action Suit Be Dismissed

Lawsuits Are Pending Against Hospitals in Albany, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, and San Antonio

DETROIT -- A landmark lawsuit filed by registered nurses in Detroit over efforts by hospitals in their area to conspire to hold down wages for nurses-even in the face of a chronic shortage of nurses willing to work in acute care hospitals-will move forward after a federal judge rejected attempts to have the case dismissed.

Judge Gerald Rosen rejected arguments from Mount Clemens General Hospital that the nurses' suit has no merit and ordered the case to go forward.

This puts us one step closer to giving direct care nurses a more powerful voice about how our profession deals with the chronic shortage of nurses working in hospitals. Nurses, our patients, and their families will all be better off when nurses' hard work is valued and more nurses can remain in their careers," said Cathy Glasson, RN, of the Nurse Alliance of SEIU.

According to a report by the Institute for Women's Policy Research, over 1.2 million nursing positions will need to be filled nationally over the next five years. The report shows that the shortage is due in part to artificially low wages caused by collusion among hospital employers.

A growing body of research has linked nurse staffing to the quality of patient outcomes in hospitals.

Nurses filed lawsuits in 2006 against hospitals in Albany, Chicago, Detroit, Memphis, and San Antonio after research showed that nurses' real wages are not rising despite ongoing shortages of staff nurses in hospitals. Nurses assert that hospitals are colluding to hold down wages instead of boosting pay to recruit and retain enough nurses to provide higher quality care.

The Nurse Alliance of SEIU has played a leading role in supporting empirical research that has exposed the national problem of employer collusion around nurse wages, shown the link between wage levels and the shortage of bedside nurses, and demonstrated the importance of staffing levels for improving patient care.

With more than 84,000 nurses in 23 states, the Nurse Alliance of SEIU is one of the largest nurse organizations in the country. Through the Nurse Alliance, nurses are uniting across the country to pursue any and all solutions to bring nurses back to the bedside and raise the standard of care, from enforcement of existing laws, to calling for new legislation protecting nurses and patients, to giving nurses a voice in the delivery of patient care.

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