City Council Passes Resolution Supporting Nurses' Right To Strike At Providence (Photo) -06/08/22

The Milwaukie City Council–led by Mayor Mark Gamba–voted Tuesday to support ONA nurses' efforts to secure a fair contract which addresses patient safety and staffing issues at Providence Milwaukie.

(Milwaukie, OR) – Declaring union nurses at Providence Milwaukie Hospital “essential for the health, safety and well-being of our community,” Milwaukie’s City Council passed a resolution supporting frontline nurses at Providence Milwaukie in their contract negotiations with Providence–one of Oregon’s largest and most profitable health systems.

“Nurses are the heart and soul of our communities’ health care. Without them, health care would come to a screeching halt. I’m standing with ONA nurses at Providence Milwaukie to put people before profits. During the pandemic, we all praised the frontline workers, like nurses, who put their lives and those of their families at risk, providing us with the best care they could. I expect Providence to treat them like the heroes that they are,” said Milwaukie Mayor Mark Gamba who introduced the resolution Tuesday night. 

The 239 frontline nurses working at Providence Milwaukie voted nearly unanimously to authorize a historic health care worker strike against Providence on Friday, June 3. Nurses at Providence Milwaukie are members of the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA). ONA represents more than 4,000 frontline nurses working at 10 Providence facilities from Portland to Medford.

ONA nurses from Providence Milwaukie testified in support of the resolution Tuesday night and city councilors voted to pass it to stand with their local nurses who “have been on the front lines, risking their lives and their families' lives to provide quality, compassionate patient care to all in Milwaukie and surrounding communities.”

• Read the full text of the resolution here: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1LSYQHt5nYu7nk1SkPLilnalboJgDwVYg/view?usp=sharing 
• Watch the City Council hearing here: https://youtu.be/Sg-AAXmWknU?t=1320
  • ONA nurses' testimony begins approximately 22 minutes into the video.

“Every day Providence is forcing nurses to do more with less. I work in a small unit in a small community hospital. There’s no backup during the best of times. Now there’s no one up front either. Our patients and our community are paying the price while Providence pads its bank account,” said Julie Davison, a frontline nurse and ONA leader at Providence Milwaukie Hospital who testified at the City Council meeting. “We appreciate our communities’ leaders taking action to stand with Oregon’s nurses. When I started here sixteen years ago this was a hometown hospital our community could be proud of. Now we’re fighting to make sure our patients have the basics. Nurses are demanding Providence commit to raise standards so we can give our patients the care they need.”

Frontline nurses at Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center in Oregon City also overwhelmingly voted to authorize strikes against Providence on Friday, June 3.  

Despite being one of the state’s largest corporations and regularly collecting more than half of its total profits from Oregonians, Providence has never faced a health care worker strike in Oregon.

Nurses' unprecedented strike votes at multiple hospitals are to protest Providence’s illegal unfair labor practices (ULPs) and demand fair contracts which improve patient care, raise nurse staffing standards, make health care more affordable and address Providence’s growing staffing crisis.

Despite nurses’ sacrifices over the last two years serving on the frontlines of a deadly pandemic--Providence has left many frontline nurses working without the safety and security of a contract. Providence allowed nurse contracts at major Oregon hospitals including Providence Willamette Falls to expire in 2021. Providence Hood River Hospital's contract expired in March 2022 and Providence Milwaukie’s contract expired in May.

ONA nurses are leading meetings to begin preparing for a strike and working to determine strike dates. When strikes are called ONA will give Providence a 10-day notice to allow management adequate time to cease admissions and transfer patients or to reach a fair agreement with nurses and avert a work stoppage. 

Providence St. Joseph Health is one of the largest and wealthiest health care systems in the US with tens of billions in annual revenue. It is Oregon’s largest health care system and one of the state’s largest corporations. Despite its national reach, Providence regularly collects more than half of its total profits from Oregonians. ONA nurses are asking Providence’s corporate executives to re-invest in safe, high-quality, affordable health care. 

Visit www.OregonRN.org/Providence to learn more.

The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) is the state’s largest and most influential nursing organization. We are a professional association and labor union which represents more than 15,000 nurses and allied health workers throughout the state, including more than 4,000 nurses working at 10 Providence Oregon health care facilities throughout the state. ONA’s mission is to advocate for nursing, quality health care and healthy communities. For more information visit www.OregonRN.org.

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