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News Release
ONA-represented clinicians at Providence informational picket on April 11, 2023
ONA-represented clinicians at Providence informational picket on April 11, 2023
Frontline Clinicians to Vote to Authorize Strike at Providence Home Health & Hospice (Photo) - 05/29/23

(Tualatin, Ore.) – After more than seven months of contentious negotiations and limited response from Providence management, 400 frontline nurses, occupational therapists (OTs), physical therapists (PTs), speech language pathologists, social workers, and bereavement counselors at Providence Home Health and Hospice are launching a strike authorization vote. The vote will open at 7 a.m. on Tuesday, May 30 and close at 5 p.m. on Sunday, June 4. By voting yes, clinicians are authorizing their union leaders to call a strike to win improvements at the bargaining table and to protest Providence’s repeated unfair labor practices (ULPs). 

Outstanding issues at the bargaining table include: 

  • Reasonable workload and caseload standards to ensure clinicians have sufficient time to provide quality patient care. During the pandemic, Providence increased the workload requirements of clinicians by up to 70%, leaving them dangerously short on time to provide care to sicker and more isolated patients. 
  • Increased paid leave (16-56 additional hours) since many clinicians drained their already below-market vacation accruals to cover repeated COVID exposures and quarantine periods. 
  • Pay increases that will stem the constant turnover, including a transparent wage scale that places all clinicians at a fair market wage.  
  • Benefit improvements that bring Providence's health benefits up to the market for Portland area healthcare workers. 

“We would expect that at this stage of negotiations, we would have more from Providence," said Sharon Barbosa, RN and bargaining unit chair at Providence Home Health and Hospice. “But they have yet to propose anything to increase paid leave banks or improve staffing standards. Right now, everything they have offered would exacerbate the recruitment and retention crisis and make it even harder for us to maintain quality patient care standards. We are taking this stand for our patients and our communities, both of whom rely on our care.”   

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) guarantees workers’ rights to engage in concerted union activity. NLRA violations are called unfair labor practices (ULPs). ULP charges filed against the hospitals include: 

  • Interfering with clinicians' right to representation in investigatory meetings by attempting to restrict the participation and speech of the union representative;  
  • Attempting to interfere with a union election by refusing to implement regularly scheduled and already promised wage increases;  
  • Discriminating against, interfering with, threatening, or attempting to intimidate clinicians because they participated in protected union activity; and  
  • Unilateral changes to policies and practices that must be bargained. 

 ONA clinicians have volunteered their time to meet frequently with paid Providence managers since October 2022, advocating for basic patient and clinician safety improvements.  

If ONA-represented nurses, PTs, OTs, speech language pathologists, social workers, and bereavement counselors at Providence Home Health and Hospice vote to authorize a ULP strike, ONA leaders will determine next steps, including setting potential strike dates. If a strike is called, ONA will provide Providence with a 10-day notice to allow management adequate time to cease admitting new patients onto service with the agency and make alternative plans for current patients or to reach a fair agreement with clinicians and avert a work stoppage. The ONA bargaining team is scheduled to meet with Providence management on June 6. 

ONA-represented nurses at Providence Portland and Providence Seaside opened strike authorization votes last week. Like their counterparts at Providence Home Health and Hospice, they are fighting for market wages, adequate PTO, improved health benefits, and improved staffing so they have time to provide quality patient care. Their vote closes on Sunday, June 4. 

The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) is the state’s largest and most influential nursing organization. We are a professional association and labor union representing over 16,000 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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