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@OregonNurses
PeaceHealth has refused to meet with home care nurses for a month.
(Springfield, Ore.) – The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) has filed an unfair labor practice charge against PeaceHealth for refusing to meet and bargain with local nurses at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services. After receiving a strike notice Jan. 19, PeaceHealth unilaterally canceled a Jan. 23 meeting with nurses and a federal mediator and has refused to sit down with nurses for the last month. Local nurses have repeatedly offered to meet with PeaceHealth executives to reach a fair contract agreement to prevent or end a strike but PeaceHealth has declined.
Home health and hospice nurses at PeaceHealth declared a limited duration strike Feb. 10 - 24 to protect their community’s health and safety, combat care delays, secure equitable pay and address PeaceHealth’s staffing crisis at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services.
The more than 90 registered nurses at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services are represented by the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA).
“It’s disappointing that PeaceHealth executives would rather sit back and scroll Instagram than talk to the frontline nurses they count on. Our strike line is only 50 yards from their front door. We’re not hard to find. We’ll meet them anywhere, anytime,” said Jo Turner, a local hospice nurse and ONA chair at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services. “We love our patients, we love our jobs, and we’d love nothing more than to get a fair contract and get back to work. But we can’t talk to an empty chair. We need PeaceHealth’s executives to show up and prove they care about the people in our community the way nurses do.”
The National Labor Relations Act requires companies like PeaceHealth to bargain in good faith. “Section 8(a)(5) of the Act makes it an unfair labor practice for an employer ‘to refuse to bargain collectively with the representatives of its employees’” specifying that companies must meet with union representatives at reasonable times and reasonable intervals. ONA nurses and PeaceHealth had 40 contract negotiation meetings between Feb. 2023 - Jan. 2024.
However, the two sides have not met since Jan. 12 due to PeaceHealth’s ongoing refusal to negotiate with home care nurses.
The National Labor Relations Board adjudicates unfair labor practice charges and can impose financial and legal penalties on companies like PeaceHealth which break the law. ONA previously filed an unfair labor practice charge against PeaceHealth after it unlawfully threatened to cancel nurses’ health insurance.
ONA home health and hospice nurses at PeaceHealth are holding a limited duration strike Feb. 10 - 24. Nurses are not discouraging patients from seeking care during the strike, however PeaceHealth patients may experience delays, cancellations or substandard care as PeaceHealth refused to temporarily transfer patients to other home health agencies and is relying on scab workers from an out-of-state, for-profit company.
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 18,000 nurses and allied health workers throughout the state, including more than 90 nurses at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services and nearly 1,500 frontline nurses at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center. 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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Monday, Feb. 19. Press Contact: Peter Starzynski, 503-960-7989, starzynski@oregonrn.org
- 11:00 am – 1:00 pm: Nurse Press Availability on Strike Line by appointment
Tuesday, Feb. 20. Press Contact: Peter Starzynski, 503-960-7989, starzynski@oregonrn.org
- 11:00 am – 1:00 pm: Nurse Press Availability on Strike Line by appointment
Wednesday, Feb. 21. Press Contact: Kevin Mealy, 765-760-2203, Mealy@OregonRN.org
- 11:00 am – 1:00 pm: Nurse Press Availability on Strike Line by appointment
Thursday, Feb. 22. Press Contact: Kevin Mealy, 765-760-2203, Mealy@OregonRN.org
- 11:00 am – 1:00 pm: Nurse Press Availability on Strike Line by appointment
Friday, Feb. 23. Press Contact: Kevin Mealy, 765-760-2203, Mealy@OregonRN.org
- 11:00 am – 1:00 pm: Nurse Press Availability on Strike Line by appointment
- 6 p.m. Candlelight Vigil. Nurses are holding a vigil to talk about PeaceHealth’s repeated care cuts in our community, its impact on vulnerable patients and our hopes for the future.
Saturday, Feb. 24. Strike Concludes