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Over 5,000 health care workers, including nurses and doctors, began Oregon's largest health care strike at Providence hospitals, demanding better staffing, wages, and benefits after failed negotiations spanning over a year.
Providence hospitals hit by largest health care strike in Oregon. (Photo: @blairgbest/X)
UPDATED: Jan 11, 2025 01:14 IST
PORTLAND, Ore: Some 5,000 hospital health care workers walked off the job Friday as they picketed all eight Providence hospitals in Oregon, in what the state health workers union described as the largest health care strike in Oregon history — and the first to involve doctors.
Most of those participating in the open-ended strike are nurses. But in a rare move, dozens of doctors at a Portland hospital and at six women’s health clinics are also partaking, making it the state’s first physicians strike, according to the Oregon Nurses Association union.
The strike came after more than a year of negotiations failed to produce an agreement over staffing levels, pay and benefits.
The union has described “chronic understaffing” as detrimental to patient care, and has called for its members to have reduced caseloads, increased wages and improved benefits. Providence says it has made offers for pay raises and been “fully committed” to reaching an agreement.
HAPPENING NOW | 5,000 Providence healthcare workers walked out of 14 facilities today. It’s the largest strike of its kind in Oregon history.
On the picket line: ICU nurses and doctors who left their units full as they fight for a fair contract. @KGWNews pic.twitter.com/b4YwynJQH2 — Blair Best (@blairgbest) January 10, 2025
Providence said it expected up to 70 doctors to strike at Providence St. Vincent in Portland, including hospitalists, obstetrics hospitalists who provide care for pregnant women and palliative care physicians working with patients with serious illness or injury. It added that surgeons and emergency doctors were not on strike.
In anticipation of the strike, Providence said Monday that it would start limiting admissions and capping the number of patients at the Portland hospital.
“We will defer or reschedule procedures requiring hospitalist support as needed, and we anticipate longer delays in our emergency department and more ambulance divert,” Raymond Moreno, chief medical officer at the hospital, said in a Monday news release.
Multiple Oregon lawmakers have expressed support for the health care workers on strike.
“The hard-working nurses, doctors and staff on strike today at Providence deserve a workplace that treats them like the health care heroes they are,” U.S. Sen. Ron Wyden said Friday on X, formerly Twitter.
Providence said Friday that temporary replacement workers are now taking care of patients at its eight Oregon hospitals.
Published By:
indiatodayglobal
Published On:
Jan 11, 2025
