By DON McINTOSHÂ
In ballots tallied Nov. 14-16, 196 doctors at six Legacy Health hospitals in Oregon and Washington voted to unionize. Support was overwhelming: 156 of the 161 votes cast were for the union. They now become members of the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association (PNWHMA)—a union for physicians that formed in 2015 as an affiliate of American Federation of Teachers (AFT). PNWHMA is staffed by the Oregon Nurses Association, which is also an AFT affiliate.
Altogether, Legacy operates eight hospitals and more than 70 clinics in Oregon and Washington. The hospitals where doctors unionized are Legacy Good Samaritan Medical Center, Legacy Emanuel Medical Center, and Randall Children’s Hospital in Portland; Legacy Meridian Park Medical Center in Tualatin; Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center in Gresham; and Legacy Salmon Creek Medical Center in Vancouver.
