Medical technicians at Michigan Medicine, the University of Michigan Health System in Ann Arbor, are expected to go on strike for one day on Tuesday, November 12. Workers are fighting for wage and benefit increases and better working conditions.

Rehabilitation and behavioral health workers, medical and laboratory assistants, hospital services, and advanced diagnostic and procedural technologists – members of United Michigan Medicine Allied Professionals (UMMAP) Local 6739, affiliated with the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) – are fighting for their first-ever health care contract.

After contract negotiations failed on November 1, UMMAP leadership announced plans to continue the one-day strike. In a post on Twitter/X, union officials said hospital management asked for a week of negotiations and the union “gave it to them.”

However, after Michigan Medicine requested an extension of negotiations, hospital management came to the bargaining table and “offered a pittance,” union officials said in their online posting. They then added: “MORE.” STRIKE FOR A FAIR CONTRACT!

As WSWS previously reported here, UMMAP members voted overwhelmingly in favor of a strike against Michigan Medicine. The union reported via social media that 86 percent of members voted 97 percent to authorize a strike to defend their demands.

Yet workers’ contract demands with the hospital have not been detailed by the union, and a one-day strike makes it clear that the union has no intention of waging the kind of fight necessary to win its case. .

At the same time, hospital management made clear that a technical staff walkout would result in strike-breaking efforts to “ensure safe staffing levels in the event of a work stoppage.” UMMAP members told the WSWS that Michigan Medicine was preparing to call in scabs to replace them if they walked out on Tuesday.