Registered nurses at MyMichigan Alma and McLaren Central Michigan are set to line the sidewalks tomorrow, in what they are calling practice strikes, part of a statewide push to curb mandatory overtime and address staffing problems. Organizers say these informational pickets are meant to turn up the heat in public, while keeping patient care running as usual inside.
According to MLive, MyMichigan Alma nurses plan to gather on the sidewalk outside MyMichigan Alma Medical Center, 300 E. Warwick Drive in Alma, from 4:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. McLaren Central Michigan nurses are scheduled to hold their own picket from 5:45 p.m. to 6:45 p.m. at McLaren Central Michigan Hospital, 1221 South Drive in Mt. Pleasant.
The events are part of a statewide week of action that the Michigan Nurses Association says is aimed at pushing lawmakers to rein in hospitals’ use of mandatory overtime. "Forced overtime for nurses should be the exception, not standard practice," MNA President Jamie Brown said in a statement.
Bills Would Limit Mandatory Overtime
At the center of the fight are Senate Bills 296 and 297, which would generally prohibit hospitals from requiring registered nurses to stay beyond their scheduled shifts, with carveouts for disasters and situations where a procedure is already in progress.
Recent Actions Across Michigan
Tuesday’s pickets follow a practice strike at Munson Medical Center in Traverse City on April 9, plus similar actions at other hospitals earlier in the week under the same statewide banner. Local coverage of the Munson event highlighted strong community turnout for nurses and outlined a bargaining standoff that organizers say is focused on staffing levels, guardrails on the use of AI, and efforts to retain experienced staff; see 9&10 News for details.
What Nurses Say And What Comes Next
Organizers told MLive that nurses will also head to Lansing for a Capitol Action Day on Wednesday, pressing lawmakers to pass SB 296 and SB 297. They say more local actions are in the works while negotiations continue. Union leaders frame the campaign as a two-track strategy, a bargaining tool at the hospital level and a legislative push to set legal limits on forced overtime and require rest periods between long shifts.
Legal Note
Organizers and local reporting describe practice strikes as informational pickets that nurses attend on their own time, while hospital operations carry on. In other words, they are meant as public pressure campaigns, not work stoppages, and patient care is supposed to remain uninterrupted. Coverage of the Munson action stressed that nurses who were on duty stayed inside caring for patients, while their off-duty colleagues picketed outside to build community pressure on the employer, according to 9&10 News.
Both MyMichigan Alma and McLaren Central Michigan have said bargaining is still active. Nurses involved in the pickets describe the demonstrations as a way to show that the community is behind their call for a safer, more sustainable bedside workforce. Union leaders say these early actions are intended as the opening round in a longer campaign aimed at hospitals and the Legislature alike, even as negotiations continue.
