Frequently Asked Questions

As UMMAP members, we are committed to supporting each other and treating everyone with fairness, trust, and equality. We are united in our mission to create a community that values diversity, equity, and inclusion while providing world class patient care. As a community, we will strive to be respectful, supportive, open-minded, and collaborative partners in bargaining with Michigan Medicine’s leadership to ensure a fair and secure contract for all members while remaining transparent. 

Represent 4600 allied health professionals across Michigan Medicine and we are the fastest growing local in the State of Michigan.  We gained a strong voice that is/will continue to improve working conditions for and by us. Since Feb. 2023, we’ve accomplished a lot.

• Have gained recognition for six bargaining units. 
• Voted and established our union leadership and union steward structure and will be electing our leadership again in June 2025. 
• Started negotiations on our Master Agreement at the end of Jan. 2024 and secured a strong contract in Feb. 2025. 
• We have been advocating for and representing our members. 
• Since 2022, we’ve been building relationships with our sibling unions at U of M and Michigan Medicine, as well as in the broader labor community. 

Our current efforts are focused on:

• Growing our strength, through building and keeping UMMAP members informed and engaged.
• Ensuring that our contract is being properly enforced through our grievance procedures. 
• Initiating a Safety Campaign that will make a difference in our respective departments, in our next contract and at the state legislative level.

We are the fastest growing healthcare union in the state of Michigan!   To join follow this link: UMMAP Membership.

There are many ways to get involved as a member.  You can become a steward, join a committee, wear UMMAP swag, talk to your coworkers about becoming a member.  Membership participation makes us stronger and we see it every day.  To get more involved follow this link:  UMMAP Commitment Form. 

We Do!!!! Members make all the big decisions, like setting our priorities in negotiations, electing officers, and voting on the final contract. Elected officers are responsible for implementing the members’ decisions.

Our union leadership are our coworkers.   Visit this link to see our currently serving officers:  UMMAP Executive Board.  

A bargaining unit is a group of employees who have common interests (community of interest) with one another. UMMAP is a large union with multiple bargaining units that have negotiated a unified master agreement that includes tailored language for each bargaining unit.

Text the same and you can follow this link:  Bargaining Units & Job Titles. 

“This is the best first contract for Allied Health Professionals in the country.” 

–AFT National Director of Healthcare Organizing Boyd McCamish

Our first contract is strong and provides protections we haven’t enjoyed before.  This is a summary of our first contract:  Summary of the UMMAP Master Agreement

And you can review contract articles here:  https://ummap6739.org/summarymaster/

Under Michigan state law, you have a right to participate in union activities and to talk about the union. As unionized workers you have additional protections. To learn more click here:  Know Your Rights

Participation!  Unions are strong and successful when members get involved! Join one of our committees, become a UMMAP Steward, attend membership meetings, talk with your coworkers.  Stay Informed!  And Be Involved!  Fill out our Commitment Form

Building & maintaining our strong union will involve some expenses and union dues are how we will cover them. We will hire staff and pay dues to AFT Michigan for the expert help they’ll give us in organizing and bargaining.

UMMAP members voted to set dues at 1.55% of base salary. Dues make money, they don’t cost money.

AFT is the labor organization helping us to form our new union. They have a history of working with professional and skilled employees, including healthcare workers. With three locals (UM HOA-Housing Officers, UPAMM-PAs, LEO—non-tenure-track faculty, USU-UM/MM non-supervisory staff, GEO—graduate student employees), they have a long-term presence at U of M. Two of the UM Regents have been AFT members. 

AFT Michigan is providing us with support we need to be successful and will continue to provide this support through recognition, negotiations and beyond.

Information to come.  

Contact your UMMAP Steward at rep@ummap6739.org. 

UMMAP is run by and for workers in patient care at Michigan Medicine. All decisions are made by members. Therefore, members’ interests are at the heart of our mission. 

Fact: Our union has been and continues to be organized BY us, FOR us, and WE don’t want to protect coworkers who add to our workload instead of alleviating it! Even without a union, we see management not addressing issues of performance. We actually hope to improve the ways management deals with these kinds of situations!

Fact: Many of us like our managers! However, managers come and go. We need a fair contract that maintains our working conditions even if our managers leave or get promoted.  Plus, through our contract, we’ll provide clear guidelines, processes, and procedures– simplifying their workloads.

Fact: Our dues have been decided by us.  We determined the rate and how the money will be used.  It’s in our interest to keep dues low! Everyone pitches in a little to get a lot more back! Paying dues will help us get better raises; in the end, we’ll have more in our pockets overall.  According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, unionized workers’ median wage was 16% higher than their non-unionized counterparts in 2023.