Providence Oregon and the Oregon Nurses Association have restarted intensive meditation as they try to end a statewide strike, . Several thousand nurses and roughly 100 doctors have been on strike for three weeks.
The two sides released a joint statement Wednesday, saying they have agreed to restart intensive in-person talks with a mediator at the request of Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek.
“Both sides are engaging in every effort to get this dispute resolved as expeditiously as possible and get people back to work,” the joint statement said.
Each side declined to release more details about the negotiations, which is typical when mediation has started in earnest.
Kotek said she met with Providence and the nurses union Tuesday.
“I am pleased to see both sides going back to the bargaining table with fresh ideas, and I urge them to come to a fair agreement as quickly as possible,” she said.
The gulf between the two sides. Providence is in the midst of a multi-year effort to spin off some of its services and focus more on hospital-level care. The organization is also trying to reverse several years of financial losses.
Providence’s unionized workers say they are burned out by the drive for efficiency and fear for their job security and patient safety.
Providence executives have said they cannot afford the wage increases and staffing improvements the unions seek, at a time when payments from Medicaid and private insurers aren’t covering the cost of patient care in Oregon.
During the strike, Providence has been running its eight hospitals in Oregon with temporary nurses. Last week, the system announced it had permanently transferred 45 pregnant patients to non-Providence doctors due to difficulty staffing the organization’s women’s clinics. Unionized doctors and other advanced practice providers remain on strike at those facilities.
In previous statements, the Oregon Nurses Association estimated the strike is costing Providence around $25 million a week.
Providence declined to say how much it’s actually spending, but strikes have been expensive in the past. In a presentation to investors, Providence reported spending $60 million on strikes two years ago, when health care workers walked out in separate five-day strikes in California, Oregon and Washington.
