PORTLAND, Ore. — Doctors and other health care workers at two Providence medical centers in Portland voted to authorize a strike Wednesday in what could be Oregon's first-ever doctor's strike.
Members voted to authorize their bargaining teams to call for a strike if necessary at Providence Women's Clinic and Providence St. Vincent Hospital. A potential strike would include doctors, physician associates, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and clinic nurses.
The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) said its members want competitive wages and benefits, more time with patients and safer staffing levels. Negotiations at the women's clinic have been underway since November 2023 and negotiations at Providence St. Vincent started in January 2024.
In a statement, Providence called the strike authorization "the latest example of union leaders putting power before patients."
"Make no mistake – union leaders’ ultimate goal is not to get contracts for members, but to engineer an eight-hospital strike that includes hospitalists at Providence St. Vincent and Providence outpatient women's clinics – which would, in effect, throw health care for thousands of patients into uncertainty," Providence said in its statement.
If a strike is called, ONA said that Providence would be given enough notice to allow time to "cease admissions and transfer patients or to reach a fair agreement and avert a work stoppage."
Providence stated that this is an "unrealistic and irresponsible" idea.
If a strike is called, it would be the first doctor’s strike in Oregon history. In June, ONA led the largest nurses strike in the state's history when over 3,000 nurses from six Providence hospitals walked off the job in a three-day strike.
Since then, the bargaining units have met with a federal mediator, though ONA said that Providence "continues to come up short" on safer staffing levels and competitive pay and benefits.
