A group of nurses at Henry Ford Genesys Hospital in Grand Blanc has asked federal labor regulators to let them vote out Teamsters Local 332, the union that has represented them for 25 years, as a strike that began more than a year ago continues without a resolution. Nurse Kristen Cox filed the decertification petition with the National Labor Relations Board, backed by legal assistance from the National Right to Work Foundation.
The petition includes signatures from 264 nurses — nearly 70% of the hospital's active 385-nurse workforce — according to the foundation. That figure clears the federal threshold by a wide margin: NLRB rules require signatures from just 30% of a bargaining unit to trigger a secret-ballot election, a bar The Oakland Press notes the petitioners cleared comfortably. If the NLRB approves the petition, a simple majority of votes cast would decide whether the union is removed, according to the National Labor Relations Board.
“The nurses want to vote for change,” Cox said, according to the newspaper's report. The petition was filed with the NLRB's Region 7 office in Detroit and now awaits further action from the agency.
A Strike That Has Dragged On More Than a Year
Teamsters Local 332 launched the strike at Henry Ford Genesys on September 1, 2025, after nurses and case managers voted by a 93% margin to reject the hospital's final contract offer over nurse-to-patient staffing ratios and pay cuts, according to the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The bargaining unit's contract had already expired that June. More than a year later, the strike remains unresolved, and not every nurse has stayed out on the picket line — some have returned to work despite the ongoing dispute.
That attrition reshaped the bargaining unit dramatically. When the walkout began, roughly 750 nurses and case managers were covered under the Teamsters contract, the union said at the time. The active unit eligible for Cox's petition has since shrunk to 385, reflecting a year of resignations, nurses taking jobs at other regional health systems, and workers crossing the picket line to return under terms management imposed unilaterally.
Hospital Imposed Wage Terms After Declaring Impasse
Henry Ford Genesys began legally implementing terms from its proposed contract in March, including nurse wage increases of up to 13%, after declaring a bargaining impasse — a move that followed an earlier wage bump of 3.0% to 8.6% the hospital put in place in November 2025. Henry Ford Health has described those increases in its own statements; Teamsters Local 332 countered by filing federal unfair labor practice charges over the unilateral action.
The acrimony has cut both ways. Genesys nurses have filed their own unfair labor practice charges against Teamsters Local 332, alleging the union retaliated against members who resigned and returned to work during the strike. According to the foundation, Local 332 officials stopped payment on checks issued to some of those employees. Cox's attorneys say this is not her first attempt at a decertification vote — a prior effort, per the foundation, was blocked by the union through what is known as a blocking charge, a procedural tool that can delay a decertification election while allegations of employer unfair labor practices are resolved.
Advocacy Group Pushes Broader Rule Change
National Right to Work Foundation attorneys, who advised the Genesys nurses on drafting their petition and collecting signatures in line with NLRB requirements, filed a separate formal rulemaking petition in June asking the agency to eliminate policies they say let unions block worker decertification votes. The foundation says its attorneys handle more than 200 such cases nationally each year, with roughly half involving union decertification efforts.
“Hospital employees at Genesys should be allowed to vote the union out, and the NLRB should reject any attempt by union lawyers to prevent that vote from happening,” foundation president Mark Mix said, calling on the board to let nurses decide whether Teamsters Local 332 continues to represent them. Foundation vice president Patrick Semmens said attorneys intend to defend the petition against any union challenge and hope the NLRB schedules an election promptly, adding that nurses should be able to vote on whether to continue the union affiliation.
Background on Michigan Labor Law and the Hospital's Finances
The dispute unfolds against a shifted legal landscape in Michigan, which repealed its 2012 right-to-work law effective February 13, 2024 — the first state in nearly 60 years to reverse such legislation, according to Honigman LLP. The repeal restored the legal authority of private-sector union contracts to require dues or fees as a condition of employment, a backdrop that has colored arguments on both sides of the Genesys standoff.
Henry Ford Genesys became part of Detroit-based Henry Ford Health on October 1, 2024, when a joint venture with Ascension Michigan combined 13 acute-care hospitals statewide — the facility was previously known as Ascension Genesys Hospital before the rebrand. The broader system reported $13.1 billion in total operating revenue in 2025, up from $9.6 billion the year before, though operating income fell from $294.2 million to $133.8 million amid integration costs and wage expenses, according to Becker's Hospital Review.
Henry Ford Health has also pointed to independent safety rankings from The Leapfrog Group showing Genesys holds the highest patient safety rating in its region, with nearly half of the system's 12 acute-care hospitals earning “A” safety grades in 2026. In February, the two sides announced a temporary negotiation milestone after more than 70 meetings since the strike began, as Hoodline reported at the time, though that effort ultimately did not produce a return-to-work agreement.
For now, the nurses' petition sits with the NLRB, with the agency yet to act on whether to schedule the decertification election that could determine the union's future at the Grand Blanc hospital.
