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More than 1,800 nurses working for Providence hospitals and programs, including hospice and home health providers, voted June 4 to go on strike.
The strike, which comes after bargaining ground to a halt last week as the nurses announced their intention to strike, begins at 5:30 am Monday, June 19, along with a picket line at the Providence Portland location. If it goes forward, it will be the first large-scale health care worker strike in more than 25 years.
And it’s expected to have potentially devastating effects on the hospital’s care capacity. Providence Health and Services announced yesterday the changes that would happen at Providence Portland in Northeast: All nonemergency surgeries have been canceled, the neonatal unit will be closed, and all babies are being relocated to other hospitals as other patient transfers will be reduced. The hospital won’t be able to perform some respiratory treatments, and it expects longer wait times in the ER.
The Oregon Nurses Association, which represents all 1,800 nurses, says its demands are focused on health care coverage, paid time off, wages and staffing levels.
In a press release yesterday, Providence published its most recent offer to its nurses. But ONA said in a statement this morning that the salary figures Providence released were misleading and missed the point of the union’s disagreements with the health care giant.
The ONA has been in contract negotiations with Providence since October. The strike vote took place after a marathon negotiating session between the three groups of Providence nurses and the Providence bargaining team, says Richard Botterill, chair of ONA’s Providence Portland bargaining team.
“Our strike vote was an overwhelming, like 96% or 97%, ‘yes’ vote from our nurses,” Botterill says.
Providence will remain open during the strike by hiring contract nurses.
“We expect several hundred highly qualified replacement nurses will join us in caring for our patients during the strike,” Providence said in a statement given to WW.
But it has released an announcement asking clients to go to other hospitals when possible. Because of the decreased capacity the three Providence providers will have limited capabilities for the upcoming week.
At Providence Seaside, all elective surgeries have been rescheduled, and admissions for patients that need transitional care from a hospital bed to at-home care have been halted.
Providence Home Health and Providence Hospice will continue to care for at-home patients with contract nurses, and new patients will be admitted only as staffing requirements allow.
The strike comes amid a national nursing shortage that has persisted since the COVID-19 pandemic. A study by the American Hospital Association suggests that more than 100,000 nurses have left the workforce in the past two years.
“The point we have been making is that if we have a great package, then the staffing issue is resolved,” Botterill says. “We will be able to both retain and attract staff.”
Providence leadership says it’s now focused on preparing for the strike, rather than bargaining. “Our bargaining teams made clear to ONA that if they issued a strike notice, the hospital teams would need to pivot to helping prepare to care for patients during the strike and would not be able to continue negotiations until after the strike.”
Providence avoided a strike of similar size at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Beaverton last summer after coming to a new contract agreement with ONA before nurses followed through with a planned walkout. If this upcoming strike does go through, which seems likely, it will be the first Providence nurses strike in the state of Oregon.
Correction: This story incorrectly identified the hospital that averted a strike last summer. It is St. Vincent in Beaverton, not St. Charles in Bend.