MNA and NNU President Jamie Brown, RN, discussed growing use of worker surveillance technologies in Michigan hospitals with Secretary Su and Director Chopra

At a joint field hearing on Thursday, October 24 — hosted by the Department of Labor and the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau in Okemos, Michigan — registered nurses with Michigan Nurses Association/National Nurses United (MNA/NNU) joined other workers, advocates, and elected officials to discuss challenges facing workers.

Department of Labor’s Acting Secretary Julie Su and Consumer Financial Protection Bureau Director Rohit Chopra spoke with MNA President Jamie Brown and other union workers about ideas to protect workers and create a fair, transparent, and competitive financial landscape for everyone.

Brown discussed the growing use of worker surveillance technologies in Michigan hospitals:

“Most people who work outside of health care may not know that the hospital industry has already implemented a host of technologies that may utilize AI and collect data on everything that happens in our facilities. Many of these technologies are marketed as tools to improve patient care, but in fact, they track the activities of health care workers like me and frequently violate our privacy and the privacy of our patients.

“Even worse, the data collected is then being used by algorithmic management systems to make unreasonable and inaccurate decisions about patient care and staffing. Those decisions seem driven by a desire to lower labor costs.

“Some NNU nurses in union hospitals are able to bargain over technology, which means that the employer needs to let us know when they’re rolling out new systems.

“They don’t always follow the rules and tell us though, which is why we need strong guidance to protect workers from surveillance.”

National Nurses United is the largest and fastest-growing union and professional association of registered nurses in the United States with nearly 225,000 members nationwide. NNU affiliates include California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee, DC Nurses Association, Michigan Nurses Association, Minnesota Nurses Association, and New York State Nurses Association.