Jennie Kordenat
receives major
IBEW award
Jennie Kordenat of IBEW Local 48
received a Founders’ Scholarship from
the International Brotherhood of Elec-
trical Workers. It is one of only two
scholarships awarded
annually to working
members of the IBEW
based on academic
achievement and po-
tential, character, lead-
ership, social aware-
ness, and career goals.
Kordenat will re-
ceive $200 per semester hour toward
her degree, with a maximum amount of
$24,000, not to exceed an eight-year
period.
Kordenat, 41, is pursuing a pre-law
degree, but also is interested in public
administration and business adminis-
tration.
Until mid-2011, Kordenat, who is
married and has two active middle- and
high-school-age daughters, three dogs,
and a rabbit, was working full time and
taking 10-15 credits at Washington
State University-Vancouver campus.
She had to take a break from school to
attend to a life threatening medical is-
sue afflicting her husband. Now that
he’s fully recovered, she will return to
her previous schedule of work, family
(now with an exchange student from
Iceland), and school, next term.
Kordenat is a senior prevailing wage
compliance investigator for Fair Con-
tracting Foundation of Oregon and
Southwest Washington. She has
worked there since 2006.
A resident of Longview, Wash., Ko-
rdenat joined the IBEW in 1993, com-
ing in as an apprentice. As a member of
Local 970 she served as recording sec-
retary, on the Executive Board, and on
the Examining Board. [Local 970
merged with Local 48 earlier this year.]
Kordenat’s father, Jan Kerby, is a re-
tired 42-year member of the IBEW and
a past president of Local 970. He now
serves as registrar for Local 48.
Kordenat’s husband, Keith, is ap-
prenticeship coordinator for Portland-
based Iron Workers Local 29.
600 nurses, allies picket St. Charles Medical Center
The Bend hospital
turns sprinklers on
half an hour into
informational picket
BEND — St. Charles Medical Cen-
ter may have turned the sprinklers on
picketing nurses Sept. 10, but it didn’t
dampen their fervor for a fair contract,
says Oregon Nurses Association
(ONA) representative Alison Hamway.
ONA reports that over 600 support-
ers, including nurses, co-workers, and
community allies, turned out for the
late afternoon picket outside the Bend,
Oregon, hospital where 670 nurses are
working under a contract extension
since their previous two-year agree-
ment expired.
At about 4 p.m., half an hour after
informational picketing began on the
sidewalk next to Neff Road, sprinklers
came on in the section of lawn nearest
the picketers. ONA attorney Alan Yo-
der called the hospital immediately, and
the sprinklers were shut off. ONA
spokesperson Scott Palmer says the
union can’t be certain whether the
sprinkling was intentional, but it came
after several other aggressive acts by
hospital management:
• The hospital has contracted with
Huffmaster, “a leading provider of
strike management solutions,” and the
firm has e-mailed nurses all over the
state to recruit them to work in the
RN Barbara Crane, president of the National Federation of Nurses, addresses
members at a Sept 10 informational picket at St. Charles Medical Center in
Bend, where the Oregon Nurses Association is in a contract dispute.
event of a strike.
• On the day of the informational
picket, some managers were telling
nurses they weren’t allowed to attend
the picket on their 15-minute breaks —
until ONA protested that move, and
every manager was reminded that
nurses have that right.
• And on Sept. 6, the day after a me-
diated bargaining session, ONA Execu-
tive Director Susan King was making
the rounds at St. Charles updating
members about the contract, accompa-
nied by ONA President Steve Rooney,
who is a St. Charles intensive care unit
nurse. Managers told them they were
interfering with patient care and told
them to leave; they refused.
Thus far the two sides have met 17
times since May, six of them with the
help of a federal mediator.
In particular, union nurses object to
two hospital proposals that they say
would harm patient care. One proposal
would eliminate charge nurses, which
are akin to foremen in that they assign
other nurses to duties based on an as-
sessment of how much care patients
need. The hospital’s 56 charge nurses
would be demoted to regular bedside
nurses, and their duties would be taken
over by newly hired “clinical supervi-
sors” — nonunion employees without
medical expertise, whose job would be
to ensure that the hospital stays within
budget regardless of patient circum-
stances, Hamway said.
Second, St. Charles wants to elimi-
nate “unassigned critical float RNs,” a
group of 11 nurses who serve as rapid
responders to life-threatening emergen-
cies in the hospital.
St. Charles also has not agreed to a
“successorship” clause in the contract
— which stipulates that the nurses
would remain unionized in the event of
a sale of the hospital.
Nurses have had a union contract at
St. Charles since 1977, after they went
on strike to win union recognition. RN
hourly wages at St. Charles currently
range from $31.05 starting wage to
$50.38 for a nurse with a master’s de-
gree and 25 years experience. The av-
erage nurse at St. Charles has 10 years
of experience and earns $41.89 an hour.
ONA is affiliated with the National
Federation of Nurses and the Oregon
AFL-CIO.
The two sides meet again Sept. 27.
(Editor’s Note: 600 caregivers rep-
resented by Service Employees Inter-
national Union Local 49 are trying to
secure a first contract at St. Charles.
They voted to unionize in January
2011.)
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SEPTEMBER 21, 2012