February 8, 2025
NEWS RELEASE
Providence responds to union claims
On Jan. 29, Providence’s bargaining teams returned to negotiations and materially enhanced their offers at all eight Oregon hospital tables, reaching tentative agreements with the union bargaining teams at each one.*
Ironically, the same union bargaining team members who today were criticizing the terms of those agreements, recommended that they be ratified when they passed them on to the bargaining unit members for a vote.
The union’s claim that the compensation packages offered are not market-competitive is false.
- The offers recommended by the union bargaining teams included an average 20% wage increase over a three-year contract, bringing the base wage for a typical full-time acute-care nurse to $150,000 a year.
- They also include ratification bonuses of up to $10,000, and $2,500 retention bonuses a year after ratification.
The union’s claims of inadequate staffing resulting in excessive turnover are false.
- We are successfully recruiting and retaining nurses at current wage rates.
- Providence’s Oregon hospitals have hired more than 650 nurses over the last three years, and each of the tentative agreements recommended by the union bargaining teams contains staffing language.
- With almost 5,000 employed ONA-represented registered nurses, there are more RNs working for Providence in Oregon than at any point in our history.
- Our RN turnover across Providence’s Oregon hospitals is at the lowest rate in three years.
- And at 5.74%, our ONA RN vacancy rate is the lowest it’s been in 3 years.
The union’s claims about unaffordable health care coverage are misleading.
- Bargaining unit nurses receive the same medical benefits package provided to their colleagues, including senior executives.
- Overall, Providence’s medical plans pay for approximately 80% of all medical costs, compared to 72% of subsidized total benefit cost for comparable large employers.
ONA’s actions have guaranteed a longer strike for its members. Providence’s bargaining teams are considering next steps and are working with the federal mediators to determine the appropriate time to return to bargaining.
*The ratification vote continues today at one hospital, Providence Medford Medical Center, where the union bargaining team agreed to remain neutral.
