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EVENT UPDATE: Wednesday's Info Picket at Mercy Medical Center is Cancelled.
ONA nurses at Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg are pleased to announce they reached a tentative contract agreement with hospital management after 9 p.m. Tuesday, November 19.
As part of the agreement, nurses are cancelling the informational picket originally scheduled for Wednesday, Nov. 20.
After more than 20 negotiation sessions, local nurses were able to secure a fair agreement which will help the hospital address staffing issues and raise local healthcare standards. The new three-year agreement includes a 26% wage increase in year one to pull nurses level with other local hospitals' wages. It also increases frontline healthcare workers' benefits to remain competitive with other healthcare systems. Nurses on the bargaining team believe this new agreement will enable the hospital to recruit and retain nurses in Douglas County and help ensure local patients continue to have access to high-quality, safe, and affordable healthcare.
Local nurses expressed deep appreciation for the support they've received from their coworkers at Mercy and from community members throughout contract negotiations. Community support was critical to reaching a fair contract agreement that will make a positive difference for nurses, patients and our community.
Nurses at Mercy will review details of the tentative agreement and hold a ratification vote soon.
350+ nurses at CommonSpirit-owned Mercy Medical Center are fighting to fix the hospital’s staffing crisis and improve local healthcare
WHAT:
Nurses and community supporters are holding an informational picket and public rally outside Mercy Medical Center Wednesday, Nov. 20 from 8 a.m. - 1 p.m.
WHEN & WHERE:
Wednesday, Nov. 20
8 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Public Sidewalks outside Mercy Medical Center
2700 NW Stewart Pkwy, Roseburg, OR 97471
WHO:
Local nurses, healthcare workers and community supporters. ONA represents more than 350 frontline registered nurses at Mercy Medical Center who care for more than 112,000 people living in Douglas County and the surrounding region.
WHY:
Local frontline nurses are fighting for a fair contract to resolve the hospital’s staffing crisis and improve their communities health and safety. Nurses have repeatedly raised the alarm about unsafe staffing concerns at Mercy. In recent years, the hospital’s inability to recruit and retain nurses has led to unsafe staffing levels that fail to meet the standards in Oregon’s Safe Nurse Staffing Law.
Decades of research and real-life experience show a lack of nurses harms community health and safety and leads to longer wait times and hospital stays, more expensive care, more infections and injuries, more hospital readmissions and more preventable deaths.
Mercy currently has approximately 75 unfilled nursing positions.
Nurses at Mercy make 20% less than nurses at other comparable Oregon hospitals. They also have worse benefits and health insurance that is both expensive and inaccessible. Due to Mercy’s low wages, inaccessible health insurance, and a lack of respect from their employer, many nurses have left Mercy in the past year, compounding the community’s healthcare crisis.
Nurses and community supporters are asking Chicago-based CommonSpirit–which made nearly $700 million in profit last year–to address its staffing crisis and focus on providing residents of Douglas County with the safe, accessible, affordable healthcare they deserve.
Community members are invited and encouraged to attend nurses’ informational picket to hear directly from local nurses, ask questions, and share concerns and stories about their own health care experiences at the hospital.
Media members are encouraged to attend to capture the voices and stories of frontline nurses and inform the community about patient care conditions at the hospital.
Wednesday’s event will be held rain-or-shine. Participants are asked to follow guidance from designated rally officials and safety personnel.
NOTE: An informational picket is not a strike or work stoppage. It is a demonstration of solidarity to CommonSpirit executives that local nurses are united to improve our community’s healthcare.
ABOUT COMMONSPIRIT: Chicago-based CommonSpirit is the third-largest healthcare system in the country. It owns 137 hospitals and more than 2,200 care sites in 24 states including 2 Oregon hospitals. It collects $38 billion in annual revenue and reported a nearly $700 million profit last year thanks to $1.5 billion in investment gains and profitability in 4 out of its 5 regions including the Pacific Northwest. Mercy’s former owners, CHI, joined with Digntiy Health to form CommonSpirit in 2019.