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2024-ONA-Mercy Medical Center - Picket Pledge |
MMC Info Picket
Dear Mercy RNs,
Our bargaining team is standing strong for a fair contract that includes affordable health benefits, competitive wages, competitive paid time off (PTO). Your bargaining team sees these issues as essential for addressing the severe staffing crisis we have started to experience In the facility. This understaffing results in an inability for nurses in the facility to provide safe and quality patient care and increases the risk to the nurses license as a result. Many of you have expressed an intent to leave the facility if a fair, market competitive contract is not reached. After seventeen bargaining sessions and an additional two federal mediation sessions, Mercy Medical Center continues to reject our main priorities at the table. Instead, Mercy proposed that we maintain the status quo for our health insurance resulting In nurses being unable to afford the healthcare that they need in their own Community. They continually suggest a decrease in PTO for full time 36 hour/week nurses with ten to twenty years or experience. This is despite evidence given to the hospital negotiating team showing that Mercy nurses are receiving significantly less PTO than the average amount offered by surrounding area facilities. It is also less than other CommonSpirit facilities outside of Oregon. It was explained to your bargaining team that this was because State Law in Washington required them to provide a higher level of PTO but that Oregon did not as yet have the same laws in place. We think it unfortunate that the corporation does not see the value in offering an accrual rate of sick and vacation time in par with other local facilities unless a law is placed requiring them to offer a reasonable amount of time off work. The hospital returned essentially the exact same wage proposal as was given at the end of our pre mediation session.
If we accept this corporation’s proposals, our wages, differentials, PTO accrual and insurance coverage will all be significantly below other local hospitals. The hospital has refused to disclose what facilities they are using comparator’s but our bargaining team has done the math. We fear the result of accepting the hospitals proposal on our community. If there are no nurses working at Mercy there will be no avenue in our community for people to receive care when they need it. The staff are hanging on by threads at this point. Mercy’s revenue was 26 million dollars last year. During COVID years when nurses were drowning their revenue was over 50 Million dollars.
ONA nurses and community supporters have the ability to improve our communities health care by standing together. Together we can protect our patients raise the standard of care they receive. But it will require us to stay, stand up, and demand this corporation do what is needed to ensure everyone in our community has access to safe, affordable healthcare. Hello HumanKindness that starts at home. Join your local nurses and take action to fight for the fair contract and standards we deserve!
If we accept this corporation’s proposals, our wages, differentials, PTO accrual and insurance coverage will all be significantly below other local hospitals. The hospital has refused to disclose what facilities they are using comparator’s but our bargaining team has done the math. We fear the result of accepting the hospitals proposal on our community. If there are no nurses working at Mercy there will be no avenue in our community for people to receive care when they need it. The staff are hanging on by threads at this point. Mercy’s revenue was 26 million dollars last year. During COVID years when nurses were drowning their revenue was over 50 Million dollars.
ONA nurses and community supporters have the ability to improve our communities health care by standing together. Together we can protect our patients raise the standard of care they receive. But it will require us to stay, stand up, and demand this corporation do what is needed to ensure everyone in our community has access to safe, affordable healthcare. Hello HumanKindness that starts at home. Join your local nurses and take action to fight for the fair contract and standards we deserve!