Benefits of Unionization

Nurses who have joined ONA see immediate positive impacts in their workplace in a variety of areas:

• Wages: Nurses who join ONA successfully negotiate substantial wage increases. At the conclusion of one organizing campaign, nurses obtained a 25% wage increase, bringing them in line with other area hospitals.
• Retention and Recruitment: Organized bargaining units often end the slow erosion of experienced nurses leaving the hospital because of poor working conditions. In addition, those same hospitals become attractive to new nurses seeking jobs who before stayed clear.
• Voice in the workplace: Whether the issue is lower than market wages, high health insurance premiums, unsafe staffing, mandatory overtime, or excessive furloughs, nurses that organize are able to work together to make incremental improvements through contract negotiations, labor-management committees, and concerted activities.                       

See other union Accomplishments throughout the years

Your Rights as a Union Member

Being a member of ONA gives you rights that you would not otherwise enjoy unless you were part of a union. 

• A contract with your employer: One right is the ability to get your employer to adhere to a negotiated contract that sets the terms on a variety of topics, including wages, overtime, health care, layoffs, and staffing.
• Grievance process: All of ONA’s contracts allow nurses to grieve alleged violations of the contract, giving you recourse when your employer unilaterally changes your working conditions.
• Collectively improving your workplace: Another right is the ability to positively change your working conditions in conjunction with your fellow nurses on issues such as staffing levels, workplace safety, and practice standards.
• Representation: ONA nurses enjoy the right to be represented when they are subjected to retaliation, discrimination, or baseless disciplinary actions.

Click here for more details on Your Rights 

Organizing

Organizing is the process and action of engaging co-workers to build a workplace which upholds high standards of care, fairness and transparency. Organizing means talking to co-workers, learning and sharing common concerns as well as identifying how to move forward together, unified, to address those concerns. Organizing is…changing the status quo. Organizing is recognizing the literal strength in numbers. Organizing is building a workplace community in which colleagues support each other, while also holding organizations accountable to the public they serve. Union Organizing connects colleagues not only at the same workplace, it also connects workers throughout the state and country.

Click here to learn about organizing and how you can organize your workplace

Labor Accomplishments

Over the years, the Oregon Nurses Association has accomplished a lot in terms of economic and general welfare, professional development and legislation that helps further the profession of nursing.  The following are just some of the economic and general welfare accomplishments ONA has achieved over the years.

1. Wage Protection and Enhancement
2. Enhanced Professional Voice and Shared Governance
3. Contract Protection Promoting Work-Life Balance
4. Assuring Fairness
5. Differential Pay for Clinical Expertise
6. Improvement of Night Shift Staffing
7. Protecting Patient Care in Home Health and Hospice Settings

Click here for more details on Labor Accomplishments