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. 

We are UMMAP–Michigan Medicine Healthcare Employees united so we can have a voice in the decisions about our workplace.  

• Adequate staffing for safe and effective patient care.
• Better control over hours and scheduling, allowing for work/life balance. 
• Fair wages that recognize our years of service and credentials to improve retention of experienced and highly skilled employees. 
• Securing our benefits. 
• Transparent and fair policies and procedures. 
• Representation and due process procedures when resolving workplace issues.
• Recognition of expertise, skills, and higher education. 
• Other improvements that we decide on as a group.

Members voted on a bargaining platform, a statement of our goals in negotiations. You can see it here:  UMMAP Bargaining Platform.

We are the fastest growing union in the state of Michigan!  Signing now ensures your voice is heard, builds our collective bargaining power, and ensures every modality and department is as fully represented as possible!

Scan here with smart phone to open link & sign the petition, or clickhere UMMAP Membership.

We’ve accomplished a lot since February 2023:   

• Gained recognition for five bargaining units.  That’s nearly 4,000 newly unionized Employees.  Another bargaining unit will join us soon.
• Voted and established our union leadership and union steward structure.
• Started negotiations on our Master Agreement at the end of Jan. 2024.
• For over the past year, we have been advocating and representing our members across all bargaining units. 
• 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.  

We Do!!!! Members will 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.

• Penni Toney (CT Technologist) – President
• Cheryl Bodmer (Surgical Technologist) – Vice-President
• Amanda Mazzocco (CT Technologist) – Secretary
• Kate Robbins (Physical Therapist) – Treasurer
• Jennifer Kempfer (CT Technologist) – ADEPT Chair
• Kelishia Burks (Medical Assistant Intermediate) – Medical Assistants Chair
• Courtney Iwanicki (Registered Dietitian) – Behavioral Health Chair
• Gregory Mannarelli (Audiologist) – Rehabilitation Chair
• Sarah Wilkin (Pharmacy Technician Intermediate) – Non-Bargained-for Chair
• Rodney Barber (Histotechnologist) – Laboratory Chair

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 are bargaining a unified master agreement that will include tailored language for each bargaining unit. 

Below are our 6 Bargaining Units:

1. Advanced Diagnostic, Emergency, and Procedure Technologists (ADEPT)
2. Behavioral Health
3. Laboratory
4. Rehabilitation
5. Medical Assistants
6. Hospital Services. 

It’s a legally binding document that spells out what we and the administration have agreed to during negotiations.

It’s a process of coming to an agreement between us and a team from the MM administration. We will meet to propose changes in our jobs and workplace. They will agree, or compromise or disagree with some of our proposals. They may propose changes as well.

We do! 25 of your coworkers sit on our Master Agreement Bargaining Team from all UMMAP bargaining units. They are Medical Assistants, Pharmacy Technicians, CT Technologists, Radiation Therapy Technologists, Physical Therapists, Medical Technologists and Social Workers to name a few. All members will be involved in major decisions and will vote on the final contract. 

When both sides have agreed to everything, we will have a contract!

Under Michigan state law, you have a right to participate in union activities and to talk about the union. The UM Regents’ Neutrality Resolution (June 2020) recognizes and reinforces your rights. Under the policy, supervisors should not talk to workers about the union at all. 

We are unionized Employees with rights and protections. We have an agreement with management that says that all discipline must be for just cause. Learn about your rights here:  Your Weingarten Rights! (3).pdf  We’ve already dealt with a lot of unfair treatment for little to no reason and our best protection is sticking together!

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!

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. No bargaining unit will collect dues until they ratify their first contract and receive their first union wage increase. 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 (UPAMM–PAs, LEO—non-tenure-track faculty, 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.

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.