The Planet Socialist Internet Web site obtained the following letter from a nurse at the Providence St. Vincent Health care Heart outside the house of Portland, Oregon. The hospital’s 1,600 nurses have been functioning without having a contract for 6 months towards requires by administration to accept reduced shell out, continuing staffing shortages, a deficiency of hazard shell out and insultingly reduced benefits.
The Oregon Nurses Affiliation (ONA) has labored extra time in an endeavor to pressure by means of a sellout deal. The union announced a tentative settlement on June 4 that accepts the basic demands of the firm, which includes wage will increase reduce than inflation, no retroactive spend, little to no added paid out time off, and minimized added benefits. The tentative agreement brought to nurses by the ONA also does not address the hospital’s staffing disaster.
The letter expresses the outrage of nurses at equally administration and the union for presenting the sellout settlement to the membership. It also can make apparent that the only real way ahead is by the development of a Providence Nurses Rank-and-File Committee to elaborate calls for for a strike, such as steep wage boosts, mandated composed requirements for risk-free staffing ratios, enhancements to office situations such as certain breaks, suitable paid time off and retroactive fork out.
We invite other nurses at Providence St. Vincent and across the place to publish to us about the conditions they facial area as a result of the ongoing social crisis and the COVID-19 pandemic.
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The Providence St. Vincent tentative agreement is horrible. In 20 yrs of contracts at St. Vincent, retroactive shell out has always been provided in the agreement. It was not involved in the tentative agreement. In its place, they offered a measly reward that will be intensely taxed and then divided it up into two areas in hopes that the nurses will not all get the reward and straight away stop, need to this poor agreement be ratified.
After over a 12 months of virtue signaling about range and equity and how it was so essential to Providence that they eventually identify Martin Luther King Working day as an formal getaway, it’s not even outlined in the tentative settlement as an formal identified holiday (Short article VI, portion A). MLK Working day is a footnote stating that if you get the job done that working day, you get compensated time and a 50 percent, but if that happens to be your frequent day off, you really do not get the accompanying use of a vacation to make the most of 30 days just before or following the holiday getaway. It is nearly like Providence does not really take into consideration it a true holiday getaway.
In Post XIV–Professional Advancement, section D, the union fought to get nurses income for continuing education and learning reasons. The tentative settlement now shows the addition that we will only be reimbursed money “in accordance with organizational requirements for organization vacation.” These organizational standards for business vacation are lined in Policy Stat ID #8684883, and are intended for govt small business vacation on behalf of Providence. They contain prerequisites for use of a precise travel website and application for and use of the Providence American Categorical card for all expenses.
Not a single personnel nurse has at any time been asked to utilize this policy prior to Main Nursing Officer Tina Mammone demanded it even though heading by way of agreement negotiations at the conclusion of final calendar year. The language in this portion now expressly forbids acquiring reimbursement for breakfast, lunch or meal for any remote program get the job done completed due to the fact we must have meals at dwelling and should not have a require to get out. Providence actually just desires to pinch pennies and limit us on how substantially reimbursement we can get so that they can maintain creating income.
There is no language in the deal that consists of coaching time for all nurses on how to stick to this business travel coverage. Providence won’t concur to enhance the accrual prices for Paid Time Off/Trip time. They want to pawn off a solitary PTO/Holiday dump of 20 hrs as good ample when Oregon Overall health & Science College (OHSU) and Kaiser Permanente provide higher accrual premiums. The wage will increase proposed would nonetheless depart numerous nurses below charges of OHSU and Kaiser contracts.
Providence however does not realize or fork out an enhanced wage for people registered nurses who have a bachelor’s diploma. OHSU pays people with higher degrees a lot more per hour, and Legacy Well being gives a 12 months-finish bonus for those people with higher degrees centered on how several hours they worked for the duration of the year. The tentative settlement does not tackle health and fitness treatment prices, lessen deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums. In fact, the tentative agreement precisely states that Providence can raise our health and fitness insurance policy rates by roughly 7 p.c in 2023 and by 8 % in 2024.
Over-all, I and several of my colleagues will be voting no on June 20th.