Hundreds of nurses and their supporters took to the streets in Corvallis Friday to demonstrate against staffing and safety problems at Good Samaritan Medical Center. This week, the nurses’ union continues to negotiate labor terms with the hospital.
The Oregon Nurses Association represents more than 500 nurses at Good Samaritan. They’ve been working without a labor contract since June.
Chris Carmichael is an intensive care nurse (at Good Samaritan) and she’s on the bargaining team. She says negotiations have thus far been contentious.
“We have been locked out of negotiations. The employer wasn’t happy that we had invited out community and our nurses to observe negotiations and they cancelled them, locked the doors, threatened to call security on us.”
Along with staffing improvements, the nurses want a better health care package and equal pay for equal work.
In a statement, the hospital said it is “committed to reach an agreement,” and that “they are actively recruiting more staff members to meet the community's needs.”
The next bargaining session is September 24th.