5,000 Plus Oregon Healthcare Workers to Go on Strike Friday

Workers at 8 Providence hospitals and at least six clinics in Oregon are slated to begin a strike at 6 AM Friday morning.

   Strikers are members of the Oregon Nurses Association and others

The ONA announced their strike plans late last week, following months of negotiations that they say yielded little progress. The strikers will reportedly include 150 Providence physicians and practitioners represented by the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association.

Axios Portland reports this will be the first physician strike in many years in Oregon.

The strikers say Providence failed to address issues of what they say are "dangerously serious" levels of understaffing. They also said the issue of fair compensation was not adequately addressed.

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As a precaution, Providence's largest area facility, St. Vincent's, began to scale back admissions this week, and there is a chance some procedures requiring the services of these striking  workers may have to be pushed back and rescheduled.