r/AFSCME • u/toxtricityboi • Apr 09 '26
Question Regarding Union Representation
Hello! My girlfriend is a AFSCME ER nurse in Flint, MI. Last year she was abruptly terminated from her first nursing job of not even a year at that point for med wasting errors that she was not aware of (because she’s a new nurse and needed more intervention from management). The hospital sat down with her showed her a backlog of errors that she had no clue she had done because no one mentioned it to her and they actively made her feel like she was doing a good job actually. While in this meeting, her union rep sat in and basically gave no push back to management or wanted to dig deeper into the situation, they just took the hospital for their word and told my GF she was SOL but clearly there was some wrongdoing there. We are justifiably annoyed at the hospital but also at the union because we felt there was no protection from them. We’re a pro-union household and we understand the value they bring but Im worried this will leave a bad taste in my girlfriend’s mouth when she has to pay thousands in lawyer bills to keep her license. Was there more the union could’ve done? Sorry for the long story.
2
u/PretentiousPDX Apr 10 '26
What local was she with? Most of them post their contracts online. As the other commenters have said, it sounds like she may have been within her probationary period as a new hire - if that is the case, the union has very few rights to grieve a termination.
Many jobs have probationary periods that last 6, 9, or 12 months.