Doctors at 2 Providence medical centers in Portland vote to authorize what could be Oregon’s first doctors strike

PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW/KTVZ) — Doctors and other health care workers at two Providence medical centers in Portland voted to authorize a strike Wednesday in what could be Oregon's first-ever doctors strike. 

Members voted to authorize their bargaining teams to call for a strike if necessary at Providence Women's Clinic and Providence St. Vincent Hospital. A potential strike would include doctors, physician associates, nurse practitioners, certified nurse midwives and clinic nurses.

The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) said its members want competitive wages and benefits, more time with patients and safer staffing levels. Negotiations at the women's clinic have been underway since November 2023 and negotiations at Providence St. Vincent started in January 2024.

In a statement, Providence called the strike authorization "the latest example of union leaders putting power before patients."

"Make no mistake – union leaders’ ultimate goal is not to get contracts for members, but to engineer an eight-hospital strike that includes hospitalists at Providence St. Vincent and Providence outpatient women's clinics – which would, in effect, throw health care for thousands of patients into uncertainty," Providence said in its statement.

If a strike is called, ONA said that Providence would be given enough notice to allow time to "cease admissions and transfer patients or to reach a fair agreement and avert a work stoppage."

Providence stated that this is an "unrealistic and irresponsible" idea. 

If a strike is called, it would be the first doctors strike in Oregon history. In June, ONA led the largest nurses strike in the state's history when over 3,000 nurses from six Providence hospitals walked off the job in a three-day strike. 

Since then, the bargaining units have met with a federal mediator, though ONA said that Providence "continues to come up short" on safer staffing levels and competitive pay and benefits. 

Jeremiah Wright, a nurse practitioner at St. Vincent, said it took a long time for the doctors and other hospitalists there to reach the point where they felt comfortable with a strike. He said doctors' first priority is "do no harm," but they have struggled to provide care because of understaffing.

"Realizing that it is beholden on the corporations and the health-care systems to ensure that we are providing the best health care for our patients," Wright told Oregon News Service. "If it comes to a point where a strike is necessary for us to achieve that, then it's up to Providence to make sure that the hospital's staffed when we're on strike."

Christina Malango is a clinic nurse with Providence Women's Clinic. Negotiations at her clinic began in November 2023, and there have been 36 bargaining sessions so far. She described nurses as "burnt out" and the clinic as short-staffed since the pandemic. She added that Providence hasn't moved on the issues most important to her and her coworkers.

"Work-life balance, competitive wages and benefits, health benefits, retirement that rewards loyalty and ensures the dignity of people as they move into retirement," she said. "Those are areas [where] we have been really stuck."

Malango said many nurses don't feel like they're being listened to - and so, a strike authorization felt like a necessary step.

"As someone who is at the bargaining table myself," she said, "I feel like the strike authorization is another tool to convey the seriousness and the unity among our union members."