State Rep. Jon Switalski, who is already racking up union endorsements for his re-election, gave his campaign a shot in the arm the other day when he snagged the backing of the Michigan Nurses Association.
To appreciate the significance, you must understand that Switalski’s opponent, fellow Warren Democratic Rep. Lesia Liss, is a longtime nurse.
The Switalski team must be absolutely gleeful over that little coup.
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| Liss and Switalski |
So, why did the MNA throw its support to Switalski rather than Liss, an emergency room RN? We may never know what internal politics is at work here, but the official reason is that Switalski is the primary sponsor of the Safe Patient Care Act, which requires hospitals to develop minimum patient-to-nurse ratios and also bans mandatory overtime for nurses.
Because of his advocacy, Switalski recently earned the MNA’s Friend of Nursing Award.
But if you read between the lines, the MNA, which represents more than 10,000 registered nurses statewide, has much more on its agenda than just work rules for its members.
Liss, who is well known in Lansing as a bipartisan pragmatist – a moderate Democrat – is apparently not the MNA’s cup of tea. She and Switalski, cousin of former state senator Mickey Switalski, were thrown together in the same south Warren district when the lines were redrawn. And he has been working to outflank her on the left ever since.
In his statement announcing the endorsement, John Karebian, MNA executive director, said his union wants “a state government that reflects the values and priorities of working families instead of corporations – values and priorities that Jon Switalski believes in. We trust Rep. Switalski to stand up for safe patient care and to keep working hard to create good-paying jobs, protect our public schools and support the middle class.”
