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Providence Health & Services said its negotiators are ready to reopen talks with the Oregon Nurses Association to end a strike by 5,000 doctors, nurses and other medical personnel that began Jan. 10.
“Providence informed federal mediators today that all eight of our hospital ministries—including our largest hospitals in Oregon, Providence Portland and Providence St. Vincent—are now ready to discuss resuming mediated negotiations with Oregon Nurses Association teams," Providence said in a statement. “It’s our understanding the mediators have been in conversation with union leaders, and we eagerly await their response.”
ONA leaders welcomed the overture. “We are happy that Providence has finally decided to do the right thing and join the nearly 5,000 striking frontline caregivers at the bargaining table to move this process forward in order to reach a fair contract and end the strike,” the ONA said in a statement.
The strike has turned bitter, quickly, with both sides claiming small victories. Providence said 600 nurses represented by ONA had crossed picket lines to work, a number it called “unprecedented.”
The union, meantime, said it was bleeding Providence by forcing it to spend $25 million on replacement nurses every week.
“This does not include the immeasurable cost of the replacement hospitalists and other caregivers from Providence St. Vincent and the Providence Women’s Clinics,” union leaders said in a statement.
Hospitalists are doctors who work only in hospitals. Workers at all eight of Providence’s Oregon hospitals and six clinics walked out last week to protest what they say are unsafe staffing levels, poor wages and inadequate benefits.
“Providence is notoriously behind other health care systems in Oregon when it comes to wages and benefits which directly impacts their ability to recruit and retain enough staff,” the ONA said.
Under the latest proposal from management, nurses with 15 years of experience would earn $8,000 less annually than counterparts at Oregon Health & Science University, the union said. A Providence spokesman didn’t immediately return an email seeking comment on the amount it’s spending on replacement nurses or the wage comparison with OHSU.
Union spokeswoman Myrna Jensen said the ONA had no way to verify Providence’s claims about picket crossers.
“Nor do we know how they are counting it,“ Jensen said in an email. ”Are they counting people who were out on leave (medical, maternity, etc.) before the strike? But looking at it a different way, according to Providence’s own numbers nearly 90% of frontline caregivers statewide are on the strike line. It’s a matter of perspective.”