Thousands of nurses at Corewell Health Southeast Michigan are voting on whether to unionize, according to the National Labor Relations Board.

The vote is being held over a three-day period. The secret ballot election will close on Thursday evening and tallying will begin Friday morning. If the nurses vote in favor of a union, they would be represented by Nurses for Nurses, a Michigan Teamsters committee.

The group would represent more than 9,600 full-time and regular part-time registered nurses at nine Corewell Health campuses. They petitioned for a union election in late September and filed a notice of election Nov. 1.

The proposed bargaining unit would include a wide range of nurses, including contingent nurses, flex nurses, and charge nurses at nine Corewell locations: Dearborn, Farmington Hills, Grosse Pointe, Royal Oak, Taylor, Trenton, Troy, Wayne, and Southfield facilities, according to the NLRB.

Corewell Health Senior Director of Communications Mark Geary said the health system respects unions but believes the majority of nurses there do not want one.

"We also believe our ability to provide high quality care to our patients and maintain a positive work environment is best achieved through a direct working relationship with our nurses," Geary said.

The committee wants to allow nurses to negotiate things such wages, benefits, staffing ratios, and scheduling, as well as floating, holiday and sick pay, according to the Nurses for Teamsters website .

The nurses' petition for a bargaining unit of 9,618 people is one of the largest for an election in recent history, according to the NLRB.