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More than 2,200 nurses at three of Legacy Health’s six hospitals announced their intent to join the Oregon Nurses Association today in what would be the largest organizing effort in the union’s history.
Nurses from Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center, Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, and Randall Children’s Hospital delivered a letter to management petitioning for voluntary recognition of the union so they could start collective bargaining on issues that include patient care and staffing, ONA said. The union plans to file for an election with the National Labor Relations Board and set a date for it soon.
Staff at Legacy stepped up efforts to organize in August 2023, when Oregon Health & Science University announced its intent to take over Legacy. Like other workers, Legacy nurses are worried about how their jobs will change if regulators allow the purchase by Legacy to go through. Mergers often mean job cuts. Both OHSU and Legacy have lost money in recent quarters, making cost cuts imperative to their success as a merged entity.
“Legacy nurses have waited decades for this moment,” said Sarah Zavala, a registered nurse in the emergency department at Emanuel. “Unionizing with ONA is about empowering nurses to provide the highest standard of care, ensuring safe staffing, and protecting the well-being of both staff and patients.”
In a statement, Legacy said it would respect the union drive: “We respect our nurses’ rights to determine union representation through an election to be held by the National Labor Relations Board.”
At a press conference today, Megan Bell, a nurse in the neonatal intensive care unit at Randall Children’s Hospital, described informal discussions with her colleagues over the years, leading to what she described as a “supermajority” of interest in unionizing. She and others want a louder voice about the OHSU merger, which she called the “elephant in the room.”
Matt Sullivan, an emergency room nurse at Good Samaritan Hospital, said being part of a union could enhance staff, patient safety, and “community trust” because nurses would have a seat at the bargaining table.
Along with nurses, many doctors are organizing as they become employees of health care conglomerates, rather than private business owners.
In June, a majority of physicians, physician assistants and nurse practitioners at Legacy Primary Care voted in favor of unionizing with the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association. They, too, are seeking protections as OHSU and Legacy seek to merge.
Some 5,000 doctors and nurses are set to strike at Providence Health & Services starting Friday, Jan. 10, marking the first time that physicians have joined a picket line in Oregon.
Staff writer Anthony Effinger contributed reporting to this story.