Hundreds Of Legacy Nurses Call For Historic Union Election To Join ONA (Photo) - 03/07/23
(GRESHAM, Ore.) – Frontline nurses working at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center in Gresham filed for a union election to join the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) March 6.
The 370 nurses at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center care for diverse, fast-growing communities in East Multnomah and Clackamas Counties which have been historically underserved. Nurses are unionizing with ONA to protect patients’ access to safe, high-quality health care; restore respect for frontline workers; and gain a voice in decisions that affect their community’s health and welfare.
“Nurses advocate to protect our patients’ health and safety every day. We know our community puts its faith in us and we take that responsibility seriously. We’re focused on improving health care access and affordability for the people living here. Joining ONA is how nurses will win a real voice in hospital decision making and ensure our patients, providers and community get a fair shot,” said Teddy Glemser, an emergency department charge nurse at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center.
Nurses filed an election petition with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which oversees private sector union elections. ONA will meet with the NLRB to confirm unit details and schedule an election date. ONA currently represents more than 300 frontline registered nurses at Unity Center for Behavioral Health in Portland and Legacy Silverton Medical Center in the Willamette Valley.
Nurses are also leading the campaign to save the Family Birth Center at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center. In January, Legacy executives announced they planned to close the center–sparking widespread opposition from local nurses, families, city councilors, state legislators and community advocates. The family birth center is the only hospital birthplace option in Gresham–Oregon’s 4th largest city–and the closest option for families in East Multnomah and Clackamas Counties. Doctors and nurses there deliver and care for more than 750 babies and families a year. Providers at the family birth center also provide emergency and non-emergency OB-GYN services and triage more acute OB-GYN patients than any other Legacy hospital.
Alejandrina Felipe was raised in Gresham and has spent the last 22 years caring for her community as a nurse at the family birth center at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center. She’s worried about what will happen to her patients after the center closes. “As a minority, I’ve always believed in the power of unionizing and the work immigrant leaders did to get basic rights. Therefore, as a registered nurse, I always wanted to be part of a union. I want my job as a nurse to be protected and to have a voice at the table when decisions are made that affect my employment and patient safety. I want to continue advocating for my community without fear of retaliation. I am learning firsthand the hardship of being displaced from a job I always felt safe and most of all not serving my East County community," Felipe said. "La unión unida, jamás será vencida.”
“Executives downtown don’t know our community or its needs. Their decisions are setting up local families for failure,” said Jenni Suarez, a frontline nurse in the emergency department at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center. “We’re not just your nurses; we’re your neighbors. We put everything into caring for everyone who comes through our doors. Unionizing with ONA gives us a strong voice to fight for the care improvements our patients and community need.”
Nurses at Legacy are joining a wave of health care professionals who have filed to join ONA within the past month. The list includes doctors, midwives and other providers at Providence Women’s Clinic which operates six women’s health clinics across the Portland metro area and physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, social workers and counselors at Providence Home Health and Hospice who work throughout the Portland Metro, North Coast, Yamhill County and the Columbia River Gorge areas. Emergency department physicians working at Providence Medford Medical Center also filed union authorization cards with the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association (PNWHMA), a hospitalists’ union represented by the American Federation of Teachers (Local 6552) and serviced by the Oregon Nurses Association.
Legacy Health is a multi-billion dollar private health system which operates six hospitals, and more than 70 clinics in the Portland-Vancouver metro area and mid-Willamette Valley. While many companies posted losses during the pandemic; Legacy profited. It made more than $400 million in profits from 2020-2022 including nearly $100 million in taxpayer bailouts via the CARES Act. Prior to the pandemic, Legacy’s hospital profits averaged between $44 million to $79 million per year from 2007-2019. Legacy also holds more than $1 billion in its investment portfolio.
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. 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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