Providence reaches tentative agreement with Oregon nurses on strike
Providence Health & Systems nurses and other health care professionals at eight Oregon hospitals have reached tentative agreements with the company that could end the strike that started Jan. 10.
The Oregon Nurses Association, which represents nearly 5,000 striking workers, and Providence officials announced late Tuesday that both sides have reached a tentative agreement. The strike will end only after members vote — and pass — the contracts, the Oregon Nurses Association said.
The vote is scheduled for Thursday and Friday in most hospitals, except for the Medford hospital, where nurses will also have Saturday to vote on it because of weather conditions. The strike, the largest involving health care workers in Oregon’s history, stretched across the state, including Portland’s St. Vincent, Providence Portland Medical Center and hospitals in Hood River, Medford, Milwaukie, Newberg, Seaside and Oregon City. Hospitalist physicians at St. Vincent Medical Center remain on strike and in negotiations, officials said.
“Providence is grateful for the tireless work done by everyone involved in this process, as well as those who have been working in our hospitals caring for our communities during the ONA strike,” Providence said in a release.
Each hospital has a separate contract.
In a release, the union said key provisions include wage increases, both now and in the future, an hour of penalty pay for nurses when they miss a break or lunch and contract language recognizes Oregon’s new nurses staffing law, which requires hospitals to meet minimum thresholds for patient safety.
The two sides reached the tentative agreement after a week of “intensive mediation,” the union said. Gov. Tina Kotek requested that step so they could bridge the impasse.
Nurses and physicians at Providence women’s clinic, which has six Portland-area sites, also reached an agreement, which members approved this week.
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Ben Botkin covers justice, health and social services issues for the Oregon Capital Chronicle. He has been a reporter since 2003, when he drove from his Midwest locale to Idaho for his first journalism job. He has written extensively about politics and state agencies in Idaho, Nevada and Oregon. Most recently, he covered health care and the Oregon Legislature for The Lund Report. Botkin has won multiple journalism awards for his investigative and enterprise reporting, including on education, state budgets and criminal justice.
