Providence Strike Comes to a Close

Oregon Nurses Association Celebrates Multiple Victories, Calls on AG to Investigate

Photo by Jonathan Borba

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - As 5-day limited duration strike by nearly 1,800 nurses and clinicians at three Providence facilities ends, ONA also sees the passage of their landmark safe staffing bill and calls on Oregon’s Attorney General to open an investigation into Providence’s use of professional strikebreakers.

“In just a few short hours, the first nurses strike in Oregon in more than 20 years, and the first-ever such strike against a Providence facility in the state, will come to an end,” said Richard Botterill, an Emergency Department nurse at Providence Portland.

“But our fight is not over. In fact, it has just begun.”

Nearly 1,800 nurses, physical therapists, occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, social workers, and bereavement councilors from Providence Portland Medical Center, Providence Seaside Hospital and Providence Home Health and Hospice will end their 5-day limited duration strike today.

The strike, which was called by an overwhelming vote of nurses and clinicians from the three bargaining units, has focused attention on key contract issues including unsafe staffing, paid time off, pay parity, access to mental health care services, and competitive compensation packages.

“We can’t do our jobs under these conditions,” said Botterill. “And Providence knows it.

"We went on strike to save lives, and our strike has been an unequivocal success.”

With the strike ending, members of the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) will invite Providence back to the bargaining table soon to continue negotiations.

Members of Providence Home Health and Hospice return to the table the morning of Tuesday, June 27 for their next round of bargaining.

Dates for bargaining at Providence Portland Medical Center and Providence Seaside Hospital are yet to be determined.

“We will be firm in our commitment to our core issues, and we will do so with the power of our successful strike action behind us,” said Botterill, who also serves as the Chair of the Providence Portland Medical Center bargaining unit.

“Our power at the bargaining table comes from our unity, and there is no doubt that Providence sees, and understands, that they cannot dismiss our strength, or the strength of the support we have received from the community. I have never been more certain that we will get a fair contract.”

At the same time, nurses across the state are celebrating the passage of ONA’s landmark safe staffing bill. Tamie Cline, RN, President of the ONA, said, “Last night, Oregon House Bill 2697 passed both the House and the Senate and is on the way to Governor Kotek’s desk. Today, Oregon’s nurses and allied health care workers should celebrate the passage of this historic legislation.”

The bill will put numerical minimum safe staffing ratios for nurses to patients in hospital settings by unit, expand Oregon’s staffing committee structure to include service, technical, and professional allied health care workers, and require the state to enforce the staffing law – including for missed meal and rest breaks.

Hospitals must comply with the nurse-to-patient ratios on June 1, 2024, and the new staffing committees must be set up on or before December 31, 2024. Increased mandatory state enforcement begins June 1, 2025.

“Safe staffing is at the heart of every single thing ONA does,” said Cline.

“It is our organizing principle, the focus of our work and our primary goal. This victory at the Oregon legislature is only one piece of a much larger effort, and that effort includes our work at bargaining tables across the state.”

ONA also called upon Oregon’s Attorney General to open an investigation into the Providence system for the unlawful use of professional strikebreakers. According to a letter submitted by ONA to the Attorney General today,

"Providence Health and Services – Oregon recently publicly admitted that it hired over 475 nurse strikebreakers as replacement workers during the recent five-day strike at three ONA-represented bargaining units.

"It appears that it recruited these individuals primarily through U.S. Nursing Corporation. Therefore, it appears that Providence has used professional strike breakers at Providence Portland Medical Center, Providence Seaside Hospital and Providence Home Health and Hospice from June 19 through 23, 2023.

"As you know, Oregon law makes it a criminal violation for an employer to knowingly utilize professional strikebreakers to replace employees involved in a strike or lockout.”

ONA referenced Oregon Revised Statute 662.215 which states “No employer shall knowingly utilize any professional strikebreaker to replace an employee involved in a strike or lockout, for the duration of that strike or lockout.”

ONA’s letter also references ORS 662.225 which makes it a crime for any professional strikebreaker to knowingly become employed for the purpose of replacing an employee involved in a strike.

In addition to the investigation into Providence for violations of ORS 662.215, ONA is calling on the Attorney General to refer any of the individuals hired by Providence through US Nursing Corporation for prosecution and consider barring US Nursing Corporation from operating in Oregon in the future.

“Nurses will not stand idly by while employers callously disregard Oregon law, hiring companies like US Nursing who are fueled only by corporate greed to illegally bring in professional strikebreakers from out of state, putting their fingers on the scales, illegally trying to shift the balance in their favor while nurses fight for their jobs, their health care, and their patient’s welfare,” said ONA Executive Director Anne Tan Piazza.

“To Providence and other health systems, we say: follow the rules. To the nurses who are employed as professional strikebreakers, we say: you are not welcome here. If you accept a job as a professional strikebreaker in Oregon, you risk criminal prosecution.”

The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) is the state’s largest and most influential nursing organization. ONA is a professional association and labor union which represents more than 16,000 nurses and allied health workers throughout the state, including nearly 1,800 frontline nurses and clinicians at Providence Portland, Providence Seaside and Providence Home Health and Hospice.

ONA’s mission is to advocate for nursing, quality health care and healthy communities. For more information visit: www.OregonRN.org.

Source: Oregon Nurses Assn