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Photo by Mark Pynas
Striking nurses at McKenzie-Willamette Memorial Hospital can put
down their picket signs since hospital administrators approved a
settlement contract
Hospital’s OK ends
long nurses strike
By MARIAN GREEN
Of m» EnwiM
Except tor the fine print, the
longest hospital strike in
Oregon's history is over
The 86-day-old nurses strike
at the McKenzie-Willamette
Memorial Hospital in Springfield
ended Thursday afternoon
when hospital administrators
approved a settlement contract
On Tuesday striking nurses
voted to allow their bargaining
unit, the Oregon Nurses As
sociation, to ratify the contract,
said Jan Dial, the nurses' chief
negotiator
Representatives for the
nurses and administrators were
working Thursday on final
wording of the document, the
last formality before the bar
gaining units can give final ra
tification. said Joe Johansen,
chief negotiator and an assis
tant hospital administrator, at a
press conference Thursday
Dial said the labor dispute has
resulted in a "tremendous loss
of trust "
"We will be looking at every
thing extremely carefully,
checking for accuracy," he said
of the contract
The tentative two-year con
tract, which replaces a contract
that expired June 30, includes a
9 percent salary increase in the
contract's second year; a
section banning work interup
tions, including sympathy
strikes; an ONA membership
option for replacement nurses;
and a recall procedure for strik
ing nurses, Johansen said
The nurses, on strike since
July 14, will begin returning to
work informally over the week
end and formally on Monday,
Johansen said
"By late next week or early
the following week, we should
be back to normal "
"We re glad to see it settled,"
Dial said "It's been very long
and very exhausting "
Nurses involved in the strike
will be recalled strictly by sen
iority, providing they're qualified
for the available job, Johansen
said Nurses who were "mili
tant" during the strike won't be
discriminated against for job
placement, he said
"All of the nurses were
qualified and were working on
at least a satisfactory basis," he
said of the striking nurses "If
they weren't, they wouldn't have
been working there."
Of the 157 nurses who origin
ally went on strike, 15 have re
signed and 25 returned to work,
Johansen said At present, the
hospital has 67 positions
available for recalled strikers
Johansen said he anticipates
that 25 strikers will be placed on
a recall waiting list and even
tually. through natural attrition,
will be returning to work
"If we can find ways to bring
the nurses back, certainly we
will," Johansen says
Dial says the waiting list
number will be smaller
"There are lots of resigna
tions that the hospital is not
aware of,” he said
Under the contract, 25 nurses
hired as replacements during
the strike and 23 nurses who
crossed the picket lines will be
free to continue working for at
least six months, Johansen
said
"We gave the new hires' a
firm commitment of continuity of
employment
Although Johansen predicted
"some tension, some animosi
ty,” between nurses who
walked off their jobs and those
who remained, he said any
problems would be "short
lived "
Although the hospital was
losing revenue at the beginning
of the strike, workforce
reductions and policy changes
enabled McKenzie — Willamette
to climb back past the "break
even" point later in the strike,
Johansen said
Dial said, however, that the
labor dispute lost the hospital
some patients who may not re
turn
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