ONA Bargaining Chair Brittany Foss at an “informational picket” outside Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital April 10 in an effort to improve healthcare practices, increase wages and reduce nurse-to-patient ratios.
ONA Bargaining Chair Brittany Foss at an “informational picket” outside Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital April 10 in an effort to improve healthcare practices, increase wages and reduce nurse-to-patient ratios.
HOOD RIVER — Nurses at Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital have been working without a contract for nearly 10 months, and talks continue to stall as the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) submitted their notice to strike beginning Jan. 10.
Last week, ONA announced they had given Providence management a 10-day notice to strike following five days of mediation. According to ONA, about 5,000 healthcare workers intend to begin their open-ended strike Jan. 10 at 6 a.m. Workers from Providence Hood River, Portland, Seaside, St. Vincent, Providence Women’s Clinic, Milwaukie, Willamette Falls, Medford, and Newberg will participate in the strike, barring any last-minute agreements.
Physicians will also strike. This will be the largest healthcare strike, and first physicians strike in Oregon’s history. Doctors and other hospitalists will be striking at select Providence locations, but sources confirmed there will not be any physicians from Providence Hood River walking out of the job.
With a federal mediator, Providence and ONA met for five days beginning Dec. 16, yet the two sides left without an agreement. After a five-day “cooling off” period — a time frame in which no strike notices could be issued — the two sides met again on Dec. 23.
Brittany Foss, a nurse at Providence Hood River who serves as the bargaining chair representing ONA Hood River, gave her thoughts on the mediation: “I can’t say strongly enough how much I feel like everyone on the bargaining teams came to this meeting and brought genuine, concerted efforts to try to make compromises, to come up with some creative solutions, to try to get to an agreement. And again, Providence failed to meet us.”
Providence discontinued bargaining conversations once ONA issued their notice to strike. In response, ONA filed an unfair labor practice with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) for Providence’s refusal to bargain.
Providence Hood River issued a statement and said in order to fulfill their commitments to the community, they have hired replacement workers to care for patients.
“We want the Gorge community to know our priority during this time will be to maintain operations and provide our patients with the same excellent and compassionate care they’ve come to expect from Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital,” said the statement.
Foss said that about 140 union-represented nurses will walk off the job as contract negotiations continue.
“I feel like there is a way to get an agreement, and really, that’s why it was so incredibly disheartening to have come away from a weeklong, expedited, federally mediated effort, not having an agreement,” Foss said.
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