PORTLAND, Ore. — On day four of a planned five-day strike by Providence Health nurses and clinicians, strikers got a boost on the picket line from the leader of a national union. At the same time, Providence officials gave an update on how things are going with replacement workers this week.
Altogether there are about 1,800 nurses and other medical workers on strike, with the vast majority being nurses at Providence Portland, and also at Providence Seaside, along with in-home and hospice nurses.
Providence brought in replacement workers and said that as of Tuesday Providence Portland has been able to accept transfers for higher levels of care and open its NICU. At Seaside, labor and delivery services are up and running again. But the health system’s central division chief nursing officer said the strike is taking its toll.
“I think that the strike has been very disruptive and emotional and expensive for all parties involved and I think it's important that we come back together and really look at a fair and reasonable contract,” said Jennifer Gentry, a registered nurse. “ONA is aware that our replacement period ends June 24, that’s Saturday at 7 a.m., and we look forward to welcoming our nurses back at that time.”
On the picket line outside Providence Portland, nurses were getting fired up. They said they are asking for equity with other nurses in the health system, namely those working at St. Vincent Medical Center on the west side, when it comes to pay, benefits and working conditions.
Providence officials said their latest offer to nurses included 30 additional hours of PTO over three years, as well as a 12% raise in the first year of the contract and additional 3% raises in the following two years. Providence also said the average nurse already makes $128,000 per year.
The union pushed back in a news release last week, arguing that the dispute is about paid time off in addition to salaries, and that $128,000 per year is the top of end of the current pay scale, not the average.
But negotiating a deal is off while the strike is on and nurses make their point. On Thursday, they had help from Randi Weingarten, president of the 1.7 million-member American Federation of Teachers, the country’s fastest-growing nurses’ union, currently representing over 200,000 health professionals nationwide.
“We, every single one of our members is standing behind you and supporting you and having your backs, because you have all of our backs,” said Weingarten to cheers and applause.
Friday is set to be the fifth and final day of the strike before nurses go back to work at 7 a.m. Saturday morning. Then those contract workers will be out, and the union nurses will be back in — but still without a deal.
Providence said it has requested that the Oregon Nurses Association provide dates for resuming contract talks. It’s unclear if those dates have been provided as of Thursday afternoon. Also, late Thursday the bulk of Oregon’s Democratic congressional delegation issued a letter to both Providence and the OHA, urging they meet as soon as possible and hammer out a fair contract for nurses.