As of 5 a.m. Monday, more than 1,300 nurses from Providence Portland Medical Center have gone on strike. Another several hundred nurses from Providence Seaside on the Oregon Coast, and a home health and hospice unit run by the Providence Health System joined them at 7 a.m.
Some nurses were asked to leave the Portland hospital at 4:30 a.m., according to the nurses union’s Twitter account. Just after 7 a.m., about 100 nurses stood in front of the hospital holding signs and cheering in response to supportive honks from morning commuters.
Maternity nurse Erin Anderson held a Taylor Swift-inspired sign that said “Providence, now we’ve got bad blood.”
“I’m on the picket line because I think we’re very undervalued and the hospital just does not respect us enough to give us a good and fair contract for how much we’ve sacrificed in the past couple years,” Anderson said.
Another sign read, “I’d rather be nursing, but this is important.” And a third: “Do better, Providence.”
Nurses on the picket line Monday morning complained that the hospital has put profits ahead of both its patients and its staff. They told OPB they have to work with subpar equipment and that they don’t have enough sick leave and aren’t fairly paid.
Negotiations between the nurses, who are represented by the Oregon Nurses Association, and Providence, one of the state’s largest health systems, broke down in early June. When nurses declared their intention to strike earlier this month, Providence leaders canceled additional negotiating sessions and pivoted to preparing to run their services during the strike.
“We are limiting our surgery operations to just emergencies only. We have closed our NICU,” said Jennifer Gentry, Providence’s chief nursing officer for the division that includes Oregon, on Sunday. Gentry said the hospital had also stopped a handful of other services, but would keep their emergency room open. “And we do expect some delays in the emergency department – some longer wait times.”
Providence has hired temporary nurses to fill in while staff nurses are on strike this week.
In the days leading up to the strike, staff nurses – more than 90% of whom voted to strike – said they wanted respect, improved compensation and better working conditions.
More than 1,300 nurses from Providence Portland, 120 from Providence Seaside and about 400 home health and hospice nurses and other workers are on strike together. Each group has a separate work contract and distinct issues they are most focused on.
An email sent to nurses on June 8 and signed by Providence Portland’s chief nursing officer, Lori Green, states that the last offer made to nurses during bargaining was contingent on there being no work stoppage and the contract being ratified by June 30.
“We were very clear in our communications to ONA that our economic proposals following a work stoppage will be very different and not nearly as lucrative as the package they walked away from,” reads the email, which was shared with OPB by two sources.
Nurses on the picket line told OPB they were worried Providence was willing to “crush” nurses to prove that strikes aren’t effective at improving working conditions and wages.
Providence spokesperson Gary Walker said he was looking into the email.
A disagreement over productivity targets is the most significant obstacle in the contract negotiations for the Providence Home Health and Hospice nurses, according to the union. Pay inequity between nurses working at the coast compared to their metro-area counterparts and disparities between earnings for hospital nurses and clinic nurses are critical sticking points for the Seaside nurses. For the Portland nurses, wages are the major issue. They have said the hospital is losing experienced nurses to higher paid jobs at other hospitals in the city and the resulting shortage is causing safety concerns affecting patients.
U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley was out supporting the Portland nurses on Monday morning. His wife is a hospice nurse who has joined the strike.
The nurses association urged patients to continue to seek the medical care in a statement released Sunday night.
“Going into the hospital to get the care you need is NOT crossing our strike line,” the statement reads.
The two affected hospitals will continue to accept emergency patients. The strike is expected to last five days.
This is a developing story. Watch for updates.
Copyright 2023 Oregon Public Broadcasting.
