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@OregonNurses
(Springfield, Ore.) – Nurses at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services in Lane County have voted to authorize an open-ended strike against PeaceHealth to protest PeaceHealth’s unlawful unfair labor practices (ULPs) and reach a fair contract agreement that improves community healthcare.
The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) represents more than 90 frontline nurses at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services. Nurses' latest strike vote was held April 12 - April 16.
"Our community’s health care is eroding under our feet. PeaceHealth has cut our birth center, our sleep clinic, our home infusion services and our hospital. Now they are degrading the high quality home health and hospice services vulnerable patients rely on. Our community’s health care is in danger of disappearing completely if we don’t stand up and fight back. Our strike isn’t just about wages, benefits and ULPs; it’s about demanding dignity and respect for our community from a health system that consistently puts profits over people,” said Jo Turner, ONA bargaining unit chair and nurse at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services. “Anyone who’s tried to get healthcare lately can see that patients are suffering. Local nurses are running ourselves ragged trying to give our community the care it deserves but PeaceHealth executives have their heads stuck in the sand in Vancouver. It’s unbelievable that multimillionaire executives at a multibillion dollar company have turned their back on their mission to serve and care for our community. Your nurses are fighting to hold PeaceHealth’s corporate executives accountable.”
Local home health and hospice nurses have endured 45+ contract bargaining sessions with PeaceHealth executives since Feb. 2023 including six sessions with a federal mediator. Nurses led a limited-duration strike on Feb. 10 - 24 to protect community health and safety, increase recruitment and retention, secure equitable pay and address the staffing crisis at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services.
Upon ending their limited duration strike and returning to mediation, PeaceHealth executives continued demanding nurses accept nearly 5% lower pay than PeaceHealth pays hospital nurses in Eugene/Springfield and hospital and home care nurses in Florence–despite both groups of home care nurses sharing managers and staff meetings and regularly caring for the same patients. PeaceHealth’s continued disrespect towards local nurses and their patients is driving nurses to leave–threatening our community’s health and exacerbating the care shortage.
Since PeaceHealth let nurses’ contract expire last year, more than a quarter of home care nurses have quit. Another one-third of nurses plan to leave this year if PeaceHealth continues shortchanging patients and providers.
“I voted yes to strike because I feel it is important for me to advocate for myself, my colleagues and my community. We deserve equal pay for equal work and our community needs a robust home care services team that can provide the care it needs. This fight is bigger than just myself and I am committed to standing firm against corporate greed,” said Cathy Smith, ONA member and nurse at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Home Care Services.
In a series of unfair labor practice charges, PeaceHealth is accused of waging a campaign of interference, intimidation and threats against nurses for exercising their rights; refusing to meet and bargain in good faith; and threatening to terminate health insurance for home care nurses and their families.
PeaceHealth also faces serious allegations from workers about its failure to properly care for local home health and hospice patients during a previous strike including missed care, cancellations, hospital readmissions and scab workers quitting.
The community has rallied around its nurses over the past few months as patients, healthcare providers, elected officials, and community allies have joined strike lines and pickets and contacted PeaceHealth executives to show their support for local nurses.
“Nurses providing home care and hospice care are among the most important members of our health care workforce, serving on the frontlines of care for many of the most vulnerable and fragile people in our community. Their work allows patients to live in their homes with dignity while their medical needs are being addressed—and their work also allows patients and their families to face the end-of-life process with that same level of care and dignity. By giving these nurses our full support, we are in turn supporting those in our community who urgently need this type of care,” said Oregon House Speaker and Eugene resident Julie Fahey in a letter to PeaceHealth executives earlier this month. “These frontline workers deserve financial stability and safe working conditions, which will also protect their vulnerable patients. Our community deserves nothing less.”
Nurses' strike vote authorizes the bargaining team to call a strike. If a strike is called, ONA will provide our community and PeaceHealth with a 10-day notice to allow PeaceHealth executives adequate time to connect patients to alternate care options or to join us at the table and reach a fair agreement.
The next mediation session is scheduled for April 24. The nurse bargaining team intends to work towards a positive resolution but will call for a strike if they believe it is necessary to move PeaceHealth to meet the needs of patients, providers and our community.