Tensions rise as Oregon nurses continue Providence picket

PORTLAND, Ore. (KOIN) – After a three-day strike, Oregon nurses are hitting the picket line for the fourth day in a row as tensions rise between the union and Providence.

Representatives from both the Oregon Nurses Association and Providence say they received a letter from the Oregon Health Authority late Thursday evening, with ONA claiming OHA found Providence in violation of a recent hospital staffing law and Providence claiming the union is incorrect on the findings of the OHA letter.

Providence has maintained that they would not let full-time nurses back until Sunday morning — two days after the strike’s end date — due to the contracts made with replacement nurses, who were hired for five days.

When nurses expressed concerns that they would be turned away from work when they showed up to their shifts on Friday morning, Providence clarified it would notify nurses whether they had been selected to fulfill their shifts via phone calls on Thursday evening.

ONA claims doing so is a violation of HB 2697, which “sets minimum safe staffing levels for nurses and allied healthcare workers.”

“Providence submitted staffing plans to OHA for approval that were never agreed upon by nurses and were unilaterally adopted by management without the required approval from the nurse staffing committee,” the nurses union said in a public statement. “According to OHA, this action violates Oregon’s staffing law, as ONA-represented nurses have been claiming.”

But Providence spokesperson Gary Walker said in a statement the union's interpretation of the OHA's response is at best incorrect and at worst "truth-twisting."

The hospital claims the letter from OHA does not mention Providence in its findings. Instead, Walker claims the union is leaping to a "false conclusion" when ONA leaders "broke off from the coalition of unions, health systems and hospitals that came together to write the law."

Until Sunday, the nurses union claims Providence’s staffing choices have pushed them to extend their picketing until Sunday and ask union-represented nurses to not cross the picket line. 

However, the union previously clarified that the ongoing picketing is not an extension of the three-day strike.

Stay with KOIN 6 News as this story develops.