SIUSLAW NEWS ❚ SATURDAY, APRIL 8, 2017
Website
from 1A
Siuslaw News is also working on a partner-
ship with local videographer Jared Anderson to
provide more video coverage of local events.
“Having the opportunity to incorporate
things like video interviews from city council
meetings, sporting events, Town Hall meetings
and others into our coverage on the website
will offer more dimension to the stories we
report on,” Hickson said.
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Storm
from 1A
Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue also
responded to downed trees, limbs and
power lines throughout its entire
region, including one power-line relat-
ed fire around 3 p.m.
The fire department and Western
Lane Ambulance District responded to
an early morning car accident Friday,
although it was unclear if the storm
was a contributing factor.
Western Lane Operations Manager
Matt House said the two-car accident
around 6 a.m. required ambulance
transportation for three people. Two
people went to PeaceHealth Peace
Harbor in Florence, and an unidentified
pregnant woman went to PeaceHealth
Sacred Heart Medical Center at
RiverBend.
“It is unclear at this time how those
situations turned out,” House said.
Western Lane responded to its usual
number of calls throughout the day,
though House did say it was a busy
Friday.
Just before 3 p.m. on Friday, a small
landslide was reported on Mercer Lake
Candidates
from 1A
Muenzer said, “I feel that everybody
is entitled to a good education.
Community colleges play a critical role
that no other type of institution can
play. I want to continue to dedicate
myself to insuring that everybody has
equal access to education.”
During the announcement segment
of the meeting, two candidates for the
Siuslaw Valley Fire and Rescue Board
of Directors, Ron Green and Crystal
Farnsworth, and one candidate for
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L a k e w o o d
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included multiple
trees entangled
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ing it difficult to
address the situa-
tion.
At the time of
the incident, Lane
County workers
couldn’t confirm
when the road
would reopen.
National
Weather Service
predicted that the
COURTESY PHOTO
highest
winds Downed trees blocked a portion of Mercer Lake
would end by
Road and brought down power lines throughout
Friday evening.
the central Oregon coast on Friday.
People
can
continue to report
storm damages at ci.florence.or.us/ tions wearing orange on April 5 to
publicworks or by calling CLPUD at remind people to slow down and watch
1-866-484-3783.
for workers.
April 3 through 7 was Work Zone
“Power on? Thank a line worker!”
Safety Week, with several organiza- CLPUD’s Twitter said.
Western Lane Ambulance District
Board of Directors, Larry Farnsworth,
requested permission to speak.
Crystal Farnsworth is running
against Ned Hickson for Siuslaw
Valley Position 1.
Green is running against Marvin
Tipler for Siuslaw Valley Position 2.
Larry Farnsworth is running against
incumbent Laura Anne Stonelake for
Western Lane Position 4.
Green said, “I ask that you support
Crystal and myself for position 1 and 2
for the fire district and Larry
Farnsworth for ambulance district
from 1A
ONA negotiator and Peace
Harbor Registered Nurse Elaine
Beers has been a nurse for 42
years, with 26 years at Peace
Harbor.
She said, “I have been on
negotiation committees for 35 of
those 42 years. In those 35 years,
this particular session has been
the most odd of any ever,
because there is no communica-
tion.”
According to Beers, when
ONA made proposals, there was
no feedback from PeaceHealth
negotiation representative Vice
President Labor and Caregiver
Relations Debra Miller.
“When she was questioned as
to when we could expect a
response, Miller would say, ‘We
reject them. That is our
response.’ Any attempts to get
some specifics are again met
with, ‘We reject them,’” Beers
said.
Miller would not comment,
but a statement released by
PeaceHealth said, “We are bar-
gaining in good faith as we value
our RNs and all of our care-
givers. Overall, we are very dis-
appointed that the ONA is taking
a negative approach to negotia-
(position) 4.”
The Siuslaw News will be publish-
ing a voters guide on all candidates and
the Lane County Jail Levy measure in
its Wednesday, April 26, edition.
Local candidates have also been
invited to participate in a special elec-
tion candidates’ forum debate May 3 at
the Florence Events Center. The
debates are open to the public and will
be moderated by KCST Coast Radio
News Director Bob Sneddon during
the “Our Town” segment from 4 to 7
p.m.
tions. This is not productive and
does not help move our discus-
sions forward in a collaborative
manner.”
Beers compared the current
nurse contract negotiations to the
ongoing doctor shortage at Peace
Harbor.
“Think about not having any
nurses as well,” she said.
Beers said that the community
has supported the hospital and
now it is time for the hospital to
support the community.
She said that there were many
issues still on the table, but the
four critical issues were wages,
insurance, security and lengthy
on call requirements.
According to Aguiar, Peace
Harbor nurses’ wages are as
much as 4.6 percent below those
paid at the PeaceHealth Sacred
Heart RiverBend Hospital in
Springfield.
PeaceHealth Strategic Comm-
unications and Engagement
Director Marcy Marshall said,
“When we reach agreement, we
anticipate wages that will be
market competitive. There may
be some nuisances with the
Sacred Heart RN contract and the
timing of wage increases; how-
ever, we do not anticipate any
significant differences.”
Beers said because of the last
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change in PeaceHealth’s health
insurance policy in 2015, several
nurses who had surgery needed
to put their co-pay on a payment
plan because it was so high.
“What is wrong with this pic-
ture?” she asked. “A health care
facility that doesn’t offer decent
health insurance to its workers.”
Security has also been a con-
cern to the nurses.
According to Aguiar, it is stan-
dard practice for PeaceHealth
hospitals to have seven days a
week, 24-hour trained security
guards. He said Peace Harbor has
24-hour security on weekends
and holidays, but only 7 p.m. to 7
a.m. security during the week.
“This has only been since
September. ONA helped to push
this into existence. It is not in the
contract and therefore is subject
to cancellation,” Beers added.
The final area of major con-
tention between the nurses and
PeaceHealth, according to Beers,
is the current on-call require-
ments.
“The operating room nurses
and the home health/hospice
nurses work all day, then are on
call for 12-14 hours and are
required to report to work the
next morning,” Beers said.
The PeaceHealth statement
further said, “Our hope is that we
come to an agreement so that we
can fully focus on delivering care
to our patients while assuring all
of our nurses are receiving fair
and equitable compensation and
benefits consistent with their
market. I would say, we are
hopeful that the mediator will
help resolve these outstanding
issues.”
Approximately 20 of Peace
Harbor’s 75 nurses attended the
Tuesday meeting. Aguiar had
them stand and then asked a
series of questions.
He first asked all nurses who
were planning to retire within the
next five years to sit down. Next,
he asked the nurses who planned
to leave the area if a fair contract
could not be signed to sit. Two
nurses remained standing.
Both Aguiar and Beers said
local Peace Harbor administra-
tion had been very supportive of
the nurses and that the negotiat-
ing problems were with
PeaceHealth corporate represen-
tatives from Vancouver, Wash.
Federal mediation will begin
Monday in Florence as a media-
tor attempts to find common
ground for Peace Harbor and the
local nurses.
Aguiar said, “We remain
hopeful that Monday we will
reach a suitable agreement with
our employer on a contract that
we can recommend to our mem-
bership for ratification. If not,
our bargaining team, in concert
with nurse leaders, will assess
where our bargaining unit is. We
will gauge whether nurses on the
floors are willing to escalate fur-
ther. We will not make any deci-
sions until after Monday’s medi-
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