Around 270 medical techs at Providence Portland Medical Center unionized with the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) in a 181-49 vote Jan. 7.
The new unit includes more than a dozen occupations, including surgical technicians, respiratory therapists, occupational therapy assistants, and technologists who operate ultrasound, MRI and mammogram equipment.
Priorities for the new unit include increasing staffing levels and fair wages and benefits, ONA spokesperson Myrna Jensen said in an email to the Labor Press.
ONA said the new unit was the first group of Providence acute care technical workers to unionize in Oregon.
The group is also the first new unit of Providence Portland workers to unionize in more than six years, ONA said. Additional groups of nurses have joined an existing ONA unit in recent years, but the last attempt to form a new unit at the hospital failed in 2019.
