After months of negotiation, the 75 nurses who staff PeaceHealth Peace Harbor Medical Center in coastal Florence still have no union contract with their employer. Mediation starts Monday, but some nurses at the hospital say their hopes for a swift resolution are low, and that PeaceHealth’s new negotiating tactics leave them feeling disrespected and ignored.
PeaceHealth officials did not respond to a Lund Report request for comment. This story will be updated if the Vancouver-based Catholic healthcare nonprofit submits comments later.
Gary Aguiar, labor representative for the Oregon Nurses Association, described several sticking points in negotiations, which began last year:
- Nurses would like a pay increase, based on a union assessment that they are paid 4.6 percent less than market rate for their work. They would also like to boost the additional pay received for filling night shifts or taking on additional duties.
- The union is asking for a guarantee of better security. After a patient became violent last year, hospital administrators hired night security for the first time, but there’s no guarantee in the old contract that these protections will continue. An off-site office near a homeless camp, which used by nurses who make home visits, also has limited security.
An RN involved in the negotiations, who asked not to be named by The Lund Report because of fear of retaliation by hospital leaders, said nurses also would like to improve their own health insurance plan, which has high out-of-pocket costs, and that they would like a human resources professional to be available at the Peace Harbor campus. HR functions were centralized by PeaceHealth several years ago, as part of ongoing consolidation and cost-cutting effort by the chain.
Aguiar described the 21-bed critical access Florence hospital as a lifeline for the community – which could be cut off if a mudslide or downed trees left roads impassable, and which is expected to serve the community if it were hit by an earthquake or tsunami. He argued that without some movement by PeaceHealth negotiators, the medical center will struggle to retain staff.
“It’s more difficult to recruit in rural areas,” he said. “We are facing a nursing shortage. We’ve had churn in surgical services and home health and hospice. Somebody will stay for one, two three years, then they leave. It’s hard to hold on to people.”
The nurse involved in negotiations said PeaceHealth’s new approach to union contracts is hurting morale among the nurses, all RNs, employed by Peace Harbor. In past negotiating sessions, local hospital administrators have come to the bargaining table to seek agreement with the union. Now, PeaceHealth has a designated Vancouver, Washington-based negotiator, who is less familiar with local issues, the nurse said.
“We have met numerous times and the lead negotiator comes unprepared, late, leaves early, or just doesn’t show,” she said. “The others on her team are only allowed to gather information and not
negotiate. I feel as though we really aren’t very high on her priority list and makes me feel like our facility is the red headed step child.”
Aguiar said this tactic appears to mirror the same approach that led to protracted conflicts between the Service Employees International Union and PeaceHealth’s Eugene operations in 2015 and 2016. PeaceHealth Sacred Heart workers in Eugene voted 524 to 367 to join SEIU Local 49 in 2015, despite vocal opposition by the health chain’s administration.
The Peace Harbor ONA contract expired at the end of December, and was extended through the end of January of this year. If mediation on Monday is not successful, each side will have an opportunity whether to propose settling, to continue negotiating, or to declare an impasse.
“We don’t want to go on strike,” Aguiar said. “Nurses care about patients, we don’t want to go anywhere near that unless we have to.”
Local Florence residents have taken note of the conflict, with over a hundred signing a petition in support of nurses following a community meeting earlier this week.
Some community members voiced concern about leadership at PeaceHealth, following local consolidation at the hospital, and reports of high turnover at the nonprofit’s top levels.
“I’ve been working here nine years, and I came here because I really enjoy small hospitals – I have worked in large and small,” said the nurse involved in negotiations.
“I really enjoy how this hospital was run. It was great. Then, a few years ago, when the administration changed, that’s when things started to change here,” she said.
Aguiar echoed that sentiment.
“These 75 nurses thought they had a good working relationship with their local administration,” he said. “That has changed in the past three or four years. They don’t have an HR person on site any more. They have to call an 800 number. They can’t resolve grievances locally any more. They have to turn to Eugene now. They are frustrated.“
Courtney Sherwood is editor-in-chief of The Lund Report. Reach her at 503-208-4173, or [email protected].
