The labor and delivery nurses of 12C have raised staffing concerns for years over inadequate staffing. They fought for a staffing plan that adheres to AWHON guidelines and  utilizes a proper acuity tool to determine appropriate staffing. After months of collecting  data, 12C nurses presented to OHSU’s top management including Jane Russell and CEO, John Hunter,asserting that OHSU was violating the staffing law, and they had the data to prove it. During that meeting, one nurse in particular spoke up about staffing and advocated for  Jane Russell to allow 12C staff to voice their concerns. Soon after, that nurse also objected to Director, Molly Blaser, telling her in a one-on-one conversation that as Charge, she should be sending nurses home and staffing with a “fiscal lense.” The nurses objected and told Blaser that budget was not a basis to understaff.  In response, rather than substantively addressing the staffing issues on 12C, OHSU attempted to silence its nurses. The nurse who spoke up and advocated for other nurses was soon called in to discuss her “tone” and  was read the management rights clause, which included a statement that OHSU had the right to discipline employees, ignoring contract provisions requiring just cause for discipline.  
 
In response, ONA filed an unfair labor practice complaint with the State of Oregon. This week, in a recommended order, an administrative law judge found that OHSU managers committed an unfair labor practice (ULP) when they called the nurse in for a meeting to discuss the nurse’s “tone”. In particular, CNO, Jane Russell and Director, Molly Blaser interfered with the nurse’s exercise of her rights to speak out on staffing. The Administrative Law Judge found: 
 
 "As detailed above, MC was summoned to a meeting with CNO Russell to discuss the tone of her communication during the September 22, 2022, UBNPC meeting and in the September 28, 2022, email exchange between MC and Director Blaser. Those communications concerned contractual staffing standards and were therefore protected activity. Based on an examination of the record as a whole, we are not persuaded that the purpose of the meeting was to help MC become a more effective communicator, or that Russell would have taken the same action absent MC’s protected advocacy. The record does not establish that CNO Russell has taken a similar interest in the communication style of other nurses, or that calling an employee into a meeting with the CNO and a HR Representative is a routine response to discourteous communication. We conclude that MC was summoned to the meeting because of, and in response to, her protected activity. 
. . . 
 
Given this context, a reasonable interpretation is not, as OHSU suggests, that the meeting was called to have a conversation about improving MC’s communication skills, but rather, that it was a veiled threat that MC should tone down her advocacy or face future discipline. 
. . .  

Because we have found that OHSU violated ORS 243.672(1)(a), we order OHSU to cease and desist from engaging in that unlawful conduct."
 
In addition, an arbitrator has now vindicated the nurses’ staffing concerns in a separate decision. These same nurses led the charge to have OHSU found in violation of the collective bargaining agreement’s requirement that the employer follow its staffing plans. After several days of hearing and testimony from many of the 12C nurses, the arbitrator concluded that OHSU was in fact not staffing appropriately according to AWHONN standards. The arbitrator found “that appropriate staffing was not being maintained in February and March of 2021”, and  ordered that “OHSU is directed to provide baseline staffing sufficient to implement the Unit 12C Labor and Delivery staffing plan including during timely meals and breaks.” The arbitrator will retain jurisdiction to ensure that OHSU complies with this order.  
 
The nurses of 12C Labor & Delivery stood their ground and fought for the staffing levels that they know their patients deserve! Despite best efforts to intimidate them into giving up, they remained united and proved that OHSU was violating the staffing law. When We Fight, We Win!!!