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Hospital visitors arrive healthy, leave with a cold shoulderTwo priests, a rabbi and a pair of college professors showed up at Legacy Emanuel Hospital in Portland Aug. 22, but they were refused admittance … to the office of Legacy vice president Stephani White. The group — which also included a reverend, a high school teacher, a retired nurse and several activists — comprised a delegation of private individuals that sought an audience with White. It was a week and a half before a planned one-day strike, and the group wanted to make an appeal to management for a just settlement. About 400 workers at Legacy Emanuel have been without a contract since July 30. They were planning a 24-hour strike for Aug. 31, after this issue went to press. After the delegation was rebuffed by White — her assistant said she was in a meeting and could not be disturbed — members paid a visit to human resources director Cynthia Torecino, who told them Legacy couldn’t stay in business if it didn’t value its employees. Later, they met with workers who were on break in the cafeteria. Operating room attendant Donna Qualls, celebrating 30 years at Emanuel, shared her thoughts on management’s offer: “That they can afford to pay [Legacy CEO Robert Pallari] $2.2 million dollars and then offer their other employees a 2 percent raise is outrageous.” “We’re just asking for them to be fair,” Qualls said. The delegation was made up of members of the Workers Rights Board, a project of Portland Jobs with Justice that enrolls religious and other leaders in support of union campaigns. It included Father Chuck Leinert of St. Andrews Catholic Church, Father Nicolaus Marandu of Immaculate Heart Catholic Church, Rabbi Joey Wolf of Havurah Shalom Synagogue, Reverend Cecil Prescod of Albina Ministerial Alliance, Lewis & Clark professor Martin Hart-Landsberg, PSU professor Mary King, Jefferson High School teacher Bill Bigelow, Kate Titus of Oregon Action, and Verna Porter and Michael Arken from the Alliance for Retired Americans. © Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc.
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