Portland-area Providence strike begins: Nearly 5,000 health care workers, including doctors and nurses, hit picket lines
Governor Kotek urges all parties to return to bargaining table
By Amy-Xiaoshi DePaola, KGW.COM
PORTLAND, Ore. (KGW) -- A long-anticipated health care workers strike began early Friday morning across 14 Providence facilities after Providence Health and the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) failed to reach an agreement in contract negotiations.
According to ONA, this is the largest nurses and health care workers strike in state history, with nearly 5,000 health care workers on the picket line, including some doctors, nurses and physician assistants. It is also the first doctors strike in Oregon's history.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle had urged both entities to make a deal beforehand, to no avail.
ONA and its workers claim that Providence is not meeting staffing standards required by the state, resulting in prolonged wait times, overwhelming workloads and the inability to provide adequate patient care. Though Providence Health said it has offered "competitive" wage increases, the union said they do not fully address the problems at hand.
KGW spoke to several health care workers who were picketing outside Providence St. Vincent Friday morning.
"Our group has not expanded at the pace that the hospital has expanded over the past several years," said Jahnavi Chandrashekar, an internal medicine hospitalist. "We are seeing more and more patients on a daily basis. Not just the usual seasonal surges that you might expect or might see with the flu season or whatever that might be, but on a consistent basis."
Another hospitalist agreed that he has been seeing more patients but staffing hasn't expanded.
"When there’s too many patients, then you get distracted doctors," said Benjamin Babb, an overnight hospitalist. You’re trying to talk to one patient and you’re getting paged about five others in the meantime, some are emergencies, and it’s just hard to really focus on each patient as is needed."
In a statement, Providence said that "Providence is committed to following the state staffing law."
Jennifer Burrows, chief executive of Providence Oregon, told KGW on Thursday that ideal staffing isn't always realistic.
"There is the intention in making sure that we're being mindful and planful about safe staffing, and then there's the 'today' reality, when someone has called in sick and we're in the middle of a surge of patients, and so, the best-laid plans that we walk into and we plan for together, can't always happen 24/7," Burrows said.
Thousands of patients statewide will be affected, from rescheduling to delays. In particular, Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, one of the largest facilities in the region, has capped the number of patients admitted to the hospital.
Strike lines will be active at Providence Portland Medical Center, Providence St. Vincent Medical Center, Providence Medford Medical Center, Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital, Providence Milwaukie Hospital, Providence Willamette Falls Medical Center, Providence Newberg Medical Center and Providence Seaside Medical Center.
Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek weighed in, directing all parties to return to the bargaining table to end the strike.
"Providence wasted 10 days when they could have been at the table making progress towards a comprehensive resolution of their labor dispute," Kotek said in a statement. "We must take care of the people who take care of Oregonians – all hospital staff deserve a fair contract. Oregonians are already experiencing disruptions to care. All parties must return to the table immediately to resolve their disagreements so normal operations and care can resume."
Tacked onto the statement was an 'Editor's Note' that added: "The Governor is aware of an internal Providence policy by which they choose not to negotiate after receiving a strike notice. She believes this policy is short sighted and unhelpful."
