Providence, bracing for massive health care strike in Oregon, makes special plea to doctors set to join
Providence Health & Services in Oregon has asked federal mediators to revisit negotiations with doctors and other advanced clinical providers set to go on strike next week.
The appeal comes after 5,000 nurses, doctors and other frontline health workers announced their plans to walk off their jobs beginning next Friday. The Oregon Nurses Association, which represents nurses and other professionals at the Catholic not-for-profit health system, called the open-ended strike on Monday. (Health workers are required to give a 10-day strike notice to allow time for health institutions to prepare for health services disruptions.)
The strike would include all eight Providence hospitals in the state and six Providence women’s clinics in the Portland metro area, marking the largest among health workers in Oregon history.
While the non-for-profit Catholic health system says it’s ready to handle the nurses’ absence, it’s extending a strategic olive branch to 150 physicians and advanced clinical providers set to strike “in the interest of community health.”
The health care giant said it has asked federal mediators to reopen talks with 70 hospitalists, including physicians and nurse practitioners, working at Providence St. Vincent. The providers unionized in 2023, citing concerns about being assigned an unsafe number of patients. They are represented by the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association, whose bargaining team is staffed by the Oregon Nurses Association.
Providence said it has also asked to revisit talks with 80 physicians, nurse practitioners and nurse midwives who staff its chain of six women’s clinics in the Portland metro area.
Providence said it has recruited temporary nurses to cover almost all its staffing needs but finding replacements for the striking doctors has been more challenging.
“We call on those representing physician/provider groups to focus on mediation and put aside their planning for a walkout,” Providence said in a statement Thursday.
The Oregon Nurses Association, which services the doctors’ union, dismissed the health care giant’s statement as “inconsistent” and “disingenuous.”
Health care workers, the union said, “won’t be divided by these calculated moves, and no one should believe Providence’s shifting excuses.”
The union filed an unfair labor practice complaint last week with the National Labor Relations Board, accusing Providence of bargaining in bad faith for its refusal to continue negotiations after receiving the strike notice. The union has also called on elected officials to urge Providence to continue negotiations.
Union leaders have criticized Providence for its consistent refusal to negotiate during the 10-day period leading up to a strike. The health provider, however, has said it needs to focus on hiring temporary staff.
“Preparing to recruit and orient these temporary workers is the key reason the Providence bargaining teams have not been at the negotiation table with union leaders,” the hospital giant said in a statement. “However, there is no equivalent temporary replacement workforce for physicians.”