Nurses at Roseburg’s Mercy Medical Center vote for ONA

Registered nurses at Mercy Medical Center voted Jan. 11 to join the Oregon Nurses Association. The vote, conducted at the hospital in Douglas County by the National Labor Relations Board, was 178 to 97 in a bargaining unit of 310.

The election is one of Oregon’s largest union election victories in the last five years, and it represents the certification of the largest collective bargaining unit of registered nurses in Oregon by any union in more than 25 years, the ONA said.

The victory didn’t come without some roadblocks.

In November, the hospital challenged the rights of 16 charge nurses to vote in the election by defining them as supervisors. The nurses withdrew their first petition for an election, and five of the 16 challenged nurses resigned their positions on the Organizing Committee to remove any suggestion of undue supervisor influence. Organizers quickly collected a sufficient number of authorization cards to submit a new petition.

Last month, hospital chief executive Victor Fresolone apologized in a letter to his nurses for an “inappropriate remark” he made to a physician in August. In the letter, he acknowledged “referring to some nurses as ‘BMWs,’ which, I regret, stands for ‘bitchers, moaners and whiners.’ ”

Registered nurses at Roseburg’s only community hospital had been publicly voicing their concerns about compromised patient care due to inadequate staffing levels and deteriorating working conditions.

The hospital’s nursing turnover rate was 17 percent a year, compared with a statewide average of 9 percent, according to a 2004 survey by the Oregon Center for Nursing.

The nurses said they sought representation with the ONA so that they could have greater control over their work setting to act as advocates on behalf of their patients.

“This confirms our commitment to provide the best possible care to our patients,” said Laura Garren, a 20-year Mercy employee who is a registered nurse in Mercy’s Family Birth Place.

The next step for the nurses is to negotiate a contract with the hospital. “Mercy nurses trust that the hospital will respect their decision to be represented by the Oregon Nurses Association and that the hospital will agree to sit down and negotiate a contract with them in good faith,” said ONA Assistant executive director of labor relations Paul Goldberg.

ONA represents 10,000 nurses.

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