Federal mediator joins St. Charles Bend nurses talks

(Update: More comments from union spokesman)

A federal mediator is joining in two days of negotiations this week for a new contract for nearly 900 St. Charles Bend nurses who have been working without one for the past five months.

Hospital Public Information Officer Lisa Goodman said the mediator’s involvement in the talks, scheduled for Thursday and Friday at the hospital, “is a common step in the negotiations process to help get through the final issues, including wages and benefits.”

“Our goal is to have tentative agreements on remaining issues by the end of the day on Nov. 30,” Goodman told NewsChannel 21 on Tuesday.

The last contract, in which a federal mediator also was involved, expired June 30, but the 874 St. Charles Bend nurses have stayed on the job as the talks continue, Oregon Nurses Association Communications Director Kevin Mealy said.

That three-year contract was approved in October 2015, also after more than six months of negotiations that also involved federal mediator. The agreement included an 8.25 percent total wage hike over three years and no health insurance premium hikes.

Despite the hospital official’s optimism, Mealy said, “We still have a lot of ground left to cover, including how to solve St. Charles’ chronic staffing problems, ending floating practices where nurses are forced to care for patients they aren’t adequately trained to treat, ensuring equal representation for direct-care nurses on unit practice committees, and providing affordable health care for nurses and their families.”

“That’s a lot of issues to resolve in two days,” he said, noting that it often takes skilled mediators nearly a full day just to identify both sides’ priorities and key proposals..

“But nurses will continue to do our part to try and reach a fair agreement that improves local patients’ care,” the union spokesman added.

Nurses at St. Charles Redmond work under a different union contract, Mealy said. Redmond nurses are meeting with St. Charles separately to talk about issues related to the recent controversial decision to close the Redmond hospital’s Family Birthing Center next summer.

“It’s unlikely to be a big part of the Bend contract negotiations,” Mealy added.

Dozens of St. Charles Bend nurses, health care workers and community members rallied in mid-September at a northeast Bend intersection.

They said they wanted to raise community awareness of continued staffing problems at the hospital. They claimed nurses are still missing their breaks, doubling up on patients and having to fill in for nurses in hospital units with different specialties, hurting the quality of patient care..

In September, Debbie Robinson, the hospital’s chief nursing officer, said several proposals had gone back and forth on resolving issues and better serving the community.

The nurses plan another rally Thursday morning in the lobby of the hospital’s Heart and Lung Center as the mediated talks get underway, to show support for the bargaining team, Mealy said.

“The rally is a little different than a public rally. Internally, we call a rally like this a ‘welcome wagon,” the union spokesman said.

“Nurses come together on their breaks or day off at a public space inside the hospital to talk about the issues on the table and to thank and support their team and show solidarity. It’s usually 30 minutes (maximum).”