This article was originally published by The Lund Report and is used with permission.
Hundreds of nurses at two hospitals in Lebanon and Corvallis have approved new contracts negotiated between Samaritan Health and the Oregon Nurses Association.
Kevin Mealy, a spokesperson for the nurses union, said the vote by 700 nurses at Good Samaritan Regional Medical Center in Corvallis and Samaritan Lebanon Community Hospital in Lebanon was nearly unanimous and that the three-year contracts are now in effect.
Samaritan Health officials welcomed the ratifications, according to a spokesperson.
“We value our nurses and are happy that the contracts were successfully ratified,” Evonne Walls said in an email.
The contracts include more than 20% in cost of living increases over the three years.
The raises triggered a reopening of negotiations on pay in the existing three-year contracts at Samaritan Albany General Hospital in Albany and Samaritan Pacific Communities Hospital in Newport, which employ nearly 370 nurses. Under the terms of those contracts, hospital staff must meet with union leaders within 60 days of ratification of the Corvallis contract. Mealy said the two sides have agreed to set four bargaining sessions within a 30-day period.
The Corvallis and Lebanon contracts also include higher pay for nurse case managers who recently joined the union, limits on nurses’ health insurance premiums, a promise by the Corvallis hospital to step up security and a Samaritan agreement that it would give nurses notice before closing a hospital department.
Samaritan Health, with five hospitals, more than 100 clinics, and insurance plans for low-income residents and seniors, dominates the health care system in Benton, Linn, Lincoln and parts of Marion and Polk counties. But like many rural health care systems, it has struggled financially and is considering possible cuts. They include eliminating the emergency surgery teams at the Lebanon and Lincoln City hospitals and ending their maternity units.
The union had rallied against possibly closing the birthing units while picketing during the contract negotiations. The hospital system has formed an interdisciplinary team to consider possible changes but that group has not yet met, Mealy said.
“Preserving local access to critical health care services is a key issue for our community,” he told The Lund Report in a statement. “Nurses are committed to continue the fight to save our birth centers and emergency surgery services to ensure everyone in our community has access (to) affordable, high-quality health care.”