STURGIS, MI (WTVB) – The Michigan Nurses Association (MNA) filed a federal lawsuit against the now-shuttered Sturgis Hospital, alleging that management violated labor laws by providing just a 72-hour notice before shutting down operations.
The lawsuit claims that the hospital breached the federal Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act, which mandates a 60-day advance notice for mass layoffs.
According to union officials, workers were unexpectedly informed of the closure on June 16, and the facility ceased its 101-year-old operations on June 19, leaving nurses abruptly unemployed, stripped of their health insurance, and in some cases, missing their final paychecks.
The legal action seeks a full 60 days of back pay and benefits reimbursement for the affected registered nurses.
Hospital management had previously cited overwhelming financial hardships common to rural healthcare facilities, including soaring operational costs and declining reimbursement rates, as the core reasons for the sudden closure.
However, the MNA maintains that because the hospital’s financial instability had persisted for years, even triggering a previous, properly handled closure notice in 2022, management had no justifiable reason to bypass federal notification requirements during this final shutdown.
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