PORTLAND, Ore. — As the largest nurses strike in Oregon history draws to a close, Providence nurses are ready to return.
On Tuesday, more than 3,000 nurses walked off the job at Providence St. Vincent, Willamette Falls, Newberg, Hood River, Milwaukie and Medford. They're asking for higher pay, improved staffing conditions and better health care benefits.
"My scrubs are clean and fresh and ready to go," said Katie Moslander, a staff nurse at Providence St. Vincent. "I'm planning on coming in (Friday) and doing my job."
It's unclear, however, whether Moslander and other staff nurses will have a shift to return to, at least for the next two days. In preparing for the three-day strike, Providence hired temporary nursing staff for five days — their contract minimum, they said — and two days longer than the strike.
"This is not new information," said Jennifer Gentry, chief nursing officer for Providence Central Division.
Gentry said nurses will be notified if they're on shift Friday and normal operations will resume Sunday at 6 a.m.
"We're not going to disrupt that plan mid-course and put patients in jeopardy," Gentry said. "We're committed to the plan we've made for the five-day period so the least disruption for our community and patients as possible."
Striking nurses and the Oregon Nurses Association argued that the hospital's short-term contract obligations are not their concern.
"We have expressed to Providence that we are only on a three-day strike," said Myrna Jensen, communications specialist with the Oregon Nurses Association. "So if tomorrow morning when we go in, they say, no, you cannot come in, then that, under our understanding of the law, is a lockout, and we at that point in time will file unfair labor practices."
But was that part of the nurse’s strike strategy from the start? Last summer, a different Providence nurses strike lasted five days.
"No," Moslander said. "We're trying to get a contract here, we're not trying to mess with anybody."
Providence officials expressed concern that some staff nurses may disrupt patient hospital entries if they try to return to work before Sunday.
"I think it's important that I call out that nurses are responsible for creating a healing environment," Gentry said. "Strikes don't absolve them of that responsibility."
Moslander took exception to those concerns.
"I guess that they forgot that we're all professionals and that I've worked here for 16 years without causing a scene," Moslander said. "I don't plan on causing a scene tomorrow, I plan on coming to work."
Moslander and other nurses tell KGW that if they're turned away from hospitals Friday morning, they plan to continue picketing. Contract negotiations were set to resume after the strike ends. Gentry said no mediation sessions have been scheduled, yet.