As mentioned in our last update, over the last few months, we have been negotiating with the newly formed Physician Assistants union (UPAMM). After negotiating for approximately two months, both parties agreed to explore the development of a two-year “mini contract” that would expedite negotiations, respond to key issues, and clarify a variety of current practices and agreements. This “mini contract” would have also provided for an immediate salary increase.  UPAMM rejected the University’s “mini contract” proposal, and the Union’s counterproposal showed differences in the teams’ respective positions that represented too large of a gap to bridge in an expedited “mini contract” negotiation.  

While we were close to agreeing upon on certain terms like management rights, no strike/lockout, on-call pay and shift and weekend differentials within the “mini-contract” concept, there remained several complex issues that were deserving of due time to develop thoughtful and thorough solutions in collaboration with colleagues across the organization. Among those more nuanced issues were administrative time, parking, discipline and grievance and arbitration processes, as well as a variety of other operational and management issues that would require considerable input from a number of parties.

Given all this, on January 14 we shared with UPAMM our intention to end our exploration of the “mini contract,” and continue with bargaining for a “full” agreement, as we were doing prior to UPAMM presenting its “mini-contract” package concept. 

The parties last met for negotiations on January 21.  Since then, UPAMM has declined to schedule any additional bargaining sessions, citing the need for time to develop contract proposals.  As the result, further negotiations have been paused.  We hope to return to the bargaining table by March 2, and are awaiting confirmation from UPAMM as to when they will be ready to resume negotiations.

While regular negotiation meetings have taken a temporary hiatus, we continue to work on matters that are important to our PA community. This includes supporting professional development for our PAs. Therefore, we have notified UPAMM that PAs will once again have access to professional development funds, in a manner consistent with the current Michigan Medicine ERP (reinstatement of 50% of department spend from FY19 and FY20, to the extent that the department has funding available for such activities).  We have presented UPAMM with a proposed MOU to memorialize this fact.

We look forward to resuming full negotiations in the coming weeks.