Nurses at three Legacy Health hospitals voted by overwhelming margins to unionize with the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) in ballots counted Feb. 6 and 7.
The new bargaining units at Randall Children’s Hospital, Good Samaritan Medical Center, and Emanuel Medical Center represent a combined total of nearly 2,300 nurses.
The vote was 462-17 (96.5%) at Randall, 453-29 (94%) at Good Samaritan, and 769-60 (92.8%) at Emanuel.
“Like nurses across the state and across the country, we just want respect at the end of the day — and safety in our working conditions, which ultimately translates to safety in patient care,” Good Samaritan nurse John Cusick told the Labor Press. “That looks like safe staffing, competitive wages, and a voice at the table with decision making that affects our daily operations.”
Cusick, who has worked at Good Samaritan for more than six years and served on the organizing committee, said the union campaign sprang from conversations with coworkers about how to make the workplace safer and more able to retain and recruit nurses.
Nurses have made previous attempts to unionize at the Legacy hospitals over the past 30 years. But this latest effort, which started in 2021, was the first to make it to an election, ONA said.
Good Samaritan and Randall each have close to 600 nurses. Emanuel has 1,100.
Nurses initially sought to organize as one unit between the three hospitals, but Legacy pushed back. Waiting for a National Labor Relations Board hearing would have delayed the election by months, so organizers opted to unionize in three separate groups, ONA said.
