Nurses and clinicians at Providence Home Health and Hospice planning their next steps.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) – After two marathon mediation sessions (including one that went nearly 24 hours), nurses from Providence Portland and Providence Seaside reached a landmark tentative agreement on a new two-year contract with Providence administrators on August 11. The tentative agreement takes critical steps to improve patient care and safety, addresses Providence’s ongoing staffing crisis and provides significant wage increases for all.

The 1400 frontline nurses working at Providence Portland and Providence Seaside are represented by the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA). They will have the opportunity to vote on the contract in the coming weeks. If approved, the agreement will take effect immediately.  

In June, nurses and clinicians of both bargaining units along with Providence Home Health and Hospice held a five-day strike over unfair labor practices (ULPs) by Providence. They received huge support from community allies, labor leaders, elected officials and frontline caregivers across the state.

“Making the decision to hold a five-day strike was not an easy one, but we knew that if we didn’t walk out, conditions would only get worse for our patients and ourselves. Nurses are dedicated to putting our patients first. We stood up to one of the nation’s largest health care systems and we’ve reached an agreement to make immediate improvements to our patients’ health care,” said Richard Botterill, RN, ONA Executive Committee Chair at Providence Portland.  

The three-year pandemic left nurses exhausted and demoralized. They’ve been asking for an increased amount of time off so they can care for themselves and their families, ensuring that they are able focus on their work at the bedside. This agreement will allow nurses to take better care of themselves and their patients and will improve recruitment and retention of the nurses our community counts on.

Tentative agreement highlights include:

For Providence Portland

• The contract includes a commitment to comply with Oregon's new nurse-to-patient ratio law.  
• A pilot program to establish the use of meal and break RNs.
• Additional 40 hours of paid time off (PTO)
• Raises between 17%-26.7% over the life of the two-year agreement - the highest percentage increases in the Portland metro area
• Retroactive pay dating back to the previous contract’s expiration date

For Providence Seaside

• Staffing language which protects ratios and empowers our staffing committee to enforce safe staffing and break relief.  
• Additional 40 hours of paid time off (PTO)
• Average wage increases of 14% and 20% for Hospital/Home Health nurses and Clinic nurses respectively.  
• Retroactive pay dating back to the previous contract’s expiration date.

The ONA nurse bargaining teams at Providence Portland and Providence Seaside are recommending “yes” votes on the tentative agreement. Member meetings will begin next week to discuss additional details of the tentative contract agreement prior to a vote.

Nurses and clinicians from Providence Home Health and Hospice ended the meditation without an agreement. While progress was made on some key issues, bargaining team members say they remain far apart on wages and protections for safe staffing. Nurses and clinicians were prepared to continue bargaining into the morning, but Providence Home Health and Hospice's team ended the session. ONA bargaining team members are prepared to return to the table and work toward an agreement that stabilizes community care and provides a fair wage scale for all clinicians.    

The Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) is the state’s largest and most influential nursing organization. We are a professional association and labor union which represents more than 16,000 nurses and allied health workers throughout the state. ONA’s mission is to advocate for nursing, quality health care and healthy communities. For more information visit: www.OregonRN.org.

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