PAGE 2 | September 6, 2019 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS
NORTHWEST
LABOR
PRESS
(International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X)
Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a
voice of the labor movement. Published on a
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days of each month by the Oregon Labor Press
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corporation owned by 20 unions and councils
including the Oregon AFL-CIO. Serving more
than 120 union organizations in Oregon and
Southwest Washington.
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Associate editor: Don McIntosh
Office manager: Cheri Rice
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CORRECTION
The Sheet Metal Workers Local 16
Labor Day advertisement that ap-
peared in the Aug. 16, edition inad-
vertently left off a name, and trans-
posed two others. The NW Labor
Press apologizes for the errors.
Low Prices!
Coats, etc.
Mon-Fri 9-6, Sat 9:30-5:30, Sun 12-6
Raises at Schnitzer scrapyard
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Nurse pickets go up at Astoria hospital
By Don McIntosh
About 200 nurses and support-
ers took up picket signs Aug.
20 outside Columbia Memorial
Hospital in Astoria to call for a
fair contract and publicize the
message that “safe staffing
saves lives.”
About 135 members of Ore-
gon Nurses Association (ONA)
have been working at Colum-
bia Memorial without a union
contract since their previous
one expired May 31. Nurses
there want an end to high-de-
ductible health insurance and
highly erratic work schedules:
Part-time nurses can see their
hours fluctuate from 20 to 35 in
any given week. ONA mem-
bers also want the hospital to
put minimum staffing rules in
its collective bargaining agree-
ment, something other hospital
employers have done. A state
law passed in 2001 requires
hospitals to have a minimum
staffing plan developed by a
joint committee of nurse man-
agers and direct care nurses,
but ONA says Columbia Me-
morial violated that law in its
birthing department. The union
has a pending complaint about
that with the Oregon Health
Authority.
A unit of 123 workers at
Schnitzer Steel’s North Portland
scrap yard has ratified a new
contract that raises wages 10
percent over three years, reports
field representative supervisor
Nate Stokes of Operating Engi-
neers Local 701. Effective July
1, the contract also for the first
time provides short-term and
long-term disability benefits and
life insurance. At the yard lo-
cated in the Rivergate Industrial
District, members operate
shredders, burners, and cranes
with powerful magnets to
process material brought in by
truck and barge.
First contract for stationary
engineers at Providence
Nurse understaffing is a real
problem at Columbia Memo-
rial, says ONA rep Amber
Cooper: nearly every depart-
ment has open positions they
cannot fill. One of the reasons
is wages that are the fifth low-
est of any hospital in Oregon.
Registered nurses there start at
$34.98 an hour and top out at
$52.48.
“I have nurses saying they
earned more as a bartender and
are considering going back to
it,” Cooper told the Labor
Press.
Columbia Memorial is fi-
nancially healthy. In 2017, the
most recent year for which fig-
ures are publicly available, the
25-bed hospital paid its CEO
Erik Thorsen $645,000 and
paid for his country club mem-
bership.
A group of five stationary engi-
neers at Providence Milwaukie
Hospital joined Operating Engi-
neers Local 701 late last year,
and last month ratified a first
contract with raises of up to $7
an hour, retroactive to January
2019. They’ll also enroll in the
Operating Engineers national
pension. The contract brings
them up to the level of their
counterparts at Providence Port-
land and Providence St. Vincent.
Most Local 701 members oper-
ate heavy equipment in con-
struction, but the union also rep-
resents numerous small units of
stationary engineers who operate
and maintain building systems.