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About The nugget. (Sisters, Or.) 1994-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 16, 2019)
Wednesday, January 16, 2019 The Nugget Newspaper, Sisters, Oregon 9 Furloughed employees Nurses, hospital reach Bill would regulate weed can visit museum free tentative agreement By Sue Stafford Correspondent St. Charles Medical Center Bend and their Oregon Nurses Association nurses union reached tenta- tive agreement in the early hours of Saturday morning after two long, late nights of federal mediation on their contract, bringing to an end contract negotiations that have been going on since June 2018. <This agreement is a win for our community9s health,= said local nurse leader and ONA bargaining unit chair David Hilderbrand RN. <I9m very proud of nurses and hospital administrators who came together to reach an agreement that puts patients first and gives us new tools to address shared concerns like staffing and practice standards& This is a promis- ing step in our shared efforts to make sure high-quality, affordable health care is available to everyone in Central Oregon.= As part of the tenta- tive agreement, nurses have agreed to cancel the informa- tional picket that was sched- uled for January 21. The local nurse negotiating team is recommending a <yes= vote on the contract agreement. Nurses will schedule a vote to approve the tentative agree- ment in the coming weeks. All nurses are encouraged to vote; not voting will count as a no vote. If approved, the new agreement will be effective immediately and run through December 31, 2022. Darlene Arruda, who lives in Tollgate, has been an ICU nurse at the Bend hospital ever since moving to Sisters 17 years ago. Her nursing career spans 29 years, always working the night shift. <Most people are very relieved that the negotia- tions are over,= Arruda said. <There has been tension in the work place as the negotia- tions dragged on.= Arruda indicated she had a lot of faith in the negotiating team representing the nurses. She thought they understood what the nurses were asking for and doubted they would have settled for anything less. Every nurse pays $94 a month in union dues. Arruda said they deserve good repre- sentation. She also said this contract negotiation is the first time they have had rep- resentation by an attorney. The tentative agreement is expected to: improve patient care by limiting floating between departments; create a shared governance structure to increase accountability around staffing and practice issues; give nurses an equal voice on unit practice com- mittees to raise health care standards; offer variable cost- of-living increases to provide financial flexibility for the hospital while helping recruit and retain nurses; and sup- port plans for new residency and fellowship programs to improve staffing and training for high-demand specialties. Half-Day of School Kids Camp January 23 & 24 at SPRD Grades K-4 — $15 View SPRD activities & classes, and register online at WWW.SISTERSRECREATION.COM 1750 W. Mckinney Butte Rd. | 541-549-2091 SNO CAP MINI STORAGE Sisters Industrial Park 157 Sisters Park Dr. • 541-549-3575 www.SistersStorage.com • State-of-the-art Security Technology • Sizes from 5x5 to 12x40 • Individual Gate Codes • Long-term Discounts • On-site Manager like alcohol PORTLAND (AP) 4 A bill introduced by U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer, a Democrat from Oregon, seeks to regu- late marijuana like alcohol. The bill introduced Wednesday would take mari- juana off the federal con- trolled substances list and establish a nationally regu- lated industry overseen by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. Blumenauer has long advocated legalizing mari- juana at the federal level. He authored a blueprint last year for his like-minded congress members on how to achieve that goal now that the House of Representatives has a Democratic majority. The bill number for the so-called Regulate Marijuana Like Alcohol Act is H.R. 420. High Desert Museum will offer free admission to fur- loughed federal employees and their immediate family members for the duration of the government shutdown. <During what is an undoubtedly challenging time for our public servants, we want to support our commu- nity and provide an oppor- tunity to visit the museum. They do so much for us. We9d like to provide some partner- ship,= said Museum Executive Director Dana Whitelaw, Ph.D. Federal employees are asked to bring a form of gov- ernment ID or badge. The Museum9s winter hours are 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, including Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Monday, January 21. A full slate of programs takes place every day, includ- ing Bird of Prey Encounter and Otter Encounter. Learn more about regular programs at www.highdesertmuseum. org/daily-schedule. The Museum exhibition By Her Hand: Native American Women, Their Art, and the Photographs of Edward S. Curtis will close after Sunday, January 20. On Saturday, January 26, the Museum will debut a 40-year retrospective of nationally renowned art- ist Rick Bartow in the exhibit Rick Bartow: Things You Know But Cannot Explain, which will be on display through April 7. Other temporary exhib- its now on display include Animal Journeys: Navigating in Nature and Desert Mystic: The Paintings of John Simpkins. More information on the Museum9s temporary and permanent exhibitions is available at highdesertmu- seum.org/exhibitions.
