Week three: Oregon’s largest health care workers strike
Portland, Oregon
Providence Health & Services’ health care workers are entering the third week of the largest nurse’s strike in Oregon’s history. Nearly 5,000 nurses, physicians, clinicians, midwives and other medical professionals from eight Portland area hospitals are demanding decent health care benefits, safe staffing, competitive wages and the hiring of more caregivers.
![](https://www.workers.org/wp-content/uploads/portland-nurses012725-678x509.jpeg)
Providence health care workers and community supporters on week three of the picket line, Portland, Jan. 25, 2025. WW Photo: Lyn Neeley
Providence pays some of the lowest wages, and its workers have among the worst health care benefits in the region. When sick, nurses are forced to use their vacation days, stay home without pay or come to work sick, because Providence doesn’t provide sick time!
Surveys conducted by the Oregon Nurses Association showed that, “More than 90% of patients reported a negative experience with Providence while 92% support union nurses and doctors striking to improve care.” (oregonrn.org, Jan. 6)
Kerry, a nurse on the picket line, told Workers World on Jan. 25: “Providence is threatening to cut off the health insurance nurses now have after 30 days if they are still out on strike, so they will have to find their own health care. Yet the hospital is paying scab labor $25 million a week and spending more on advertising against the strike. They also pay extra money to workers inside the hospital so they will stay.”
Lee Bulwinkle, also on the picket line, has worked at Providence for many years. He said: “Nurses miss their patients and would much rather be working than striking. Young nurses feel forced to leave Providence and get per diem work somewhere else, because they have the worst health care. When I started working at Providence, the health care was decent, there were no deductibles. But now, they have double deductibles.”
Providence frontline workers have offered to meet with hospital executives to negotiate a fair contract. But, Bulwinkle said, “Providence management has refused to negotiate for the last year and a half.”
On Jan. 24, over 1,000 community supporters joined a rally and march for the striking nurses. Health care workers from Oregon Health and Science University, Legacy Health hospitals, Multnomah County, Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, Washington State Nurses Association and American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees and Service Employees union (SEIU) attended.
Other strike backers included Jobs with Justice, the Teamsters (IBT), Machinists (IAM), American Federation of Teachers, Oregon Education Association, Oregon School Employees Association and Portland Firefighters Association.
Oregon senators and representatives sent a letter to Providence management emphasizing the need for fair wages, better staffing and improved working conditions.