A6 The BulleTin • Friday, March 5, 2021
Virus
Continued from A1
Photos by Dean Guernsey/The Bulletin
James Hooper, right, a cath lab tech, stands with more than 100 others during a strike at St. Charles Bend on Thursday. The striking workers are
part of the Oregon Federation of Nursing and Health Professionals.
Strike
Continued from A1
Both sides have come to-
gether 28 times since the union
was formed in 2019.
Still, union workers were ex-
cited and hopeful, said Frank
DeWolf, a St. Charles cardiac
catheterization lab technologist.
The hospital offered a bar-
gaining session on Wednesday
with the union and a federal
mediator, but the union de-
clined. A requirement of that
meeting was that the union
had to cancel the strike, rather
than just delay it. It was unclear
if there were conditions for the
late night meeting, as well.
“This is a sad day,” said
Aaron Adams, president of St.
Charles Bend, in a prepared
statement. “We want to come
to an agreement with our care-
givers and have attempted to
do so repeatedly. But we also
have an important job to do
and responsibility to our com-
munity. Our focus is taking
care of our patients.”
The union has called for an
open-ended strike that has no
end date.
A meeting is scheduled with
a federal mediator for March
10. The last time the two sides
were at the bargaining table
was in December. The hospi-
tal said it has to hire trained
replacement workers and the
community should feel confi-
dent in the care provided.
From the picket line, Kristen
Keim, a St. Charles Bend scrub
technician for the past 4½
years, said she just wants the
same pay benefits that nurses
get, particularly wage differen-
tial for night and evening work.
“We never wanted this to
happen in the first place,” Keim
Highway
Continued from A1
“Why would the Legislature
disapprove of this?” Tobiason
asked. “It doesn’t cost them a
cent.”
There are nearly 100 signs
honoring veterans installed
on eight Oregon highways
stretching more than 3,000
miles across the state. Each
designated highway has be-
tween 10 and 18 signs, he said.
That means drivers could see
one veterans highway honor
sign every 65 miles.
U.S. Highway 30 extends
3,073 miles to Boston on the
East Coast. It is the only ma-
jor highway in Oregon not
designated to honor veterans.
It crosses 11 states and is the
nation’s third longest coast-to-
coast highway.
Oregon’s section of the
highway that winds along the
Columbia River from the As-
toria-Megler Bridge through
Scappoose and Portland be-
fore heading east as part of In-
terstate 84, is the beginning of
Tobiason’s plans for the road.
He’s working with veterans
groups and lawmakers in 10
other states to get the same
designation all the way to Bos-
ton.
Tobiason’s Bend Heroes
Foundation has also asked
Congress to designate the
Striking workers show their signs to passers-by at St. Charles in Bend on Thursday.
George Wainscott, a family birthing CST, rallies the crowd during a
strike at St. Charles in Bend on Thursday.
said. “We are hoping that St.
Charles will get their act to-
gether and realize that they
need to value us, and the pa-
tients need us.
“We just want to live here,
make a livable wage, take care
of our patients, retain people.”
St. Charles Health System,
which operates the Bend hos-
pital, said Wednesday in a pre-
pared statement that there are
two items on the table: com-
pensation and union security.
The health system said, in
a prepared statement, that it
ended 2020 about $21 million
below its financial targets even
after federal grant money from
the the Coronavirus Aid, Re-
lief, and Economic Security
Act. Losses were incurred due
to the period of time when the
hospital could not perform
scheduled surgeries as a way to
regulate hospital patient loads
3,365-mile U.S. Highway 20,
which begins at Newport on
the Oregon Coast and heads
east to Boston, the National
Medal of Honor Highway. Or-
egon’s section of Highway 20 is
already known as the Medal of
Honor Highway.
SB 790 is also kind of an
ending for Tobiason. He has
proposed similar bills since
2008 and testified 14 times in
favor of legislation. When he’s
finished with the U.S. Highway
30 project, just about every
major highway in the state will
honor veterans or service men
and women missing in action.
Between World War I
(1914) and wars in Iraq, Af-
ghanistan and the Persian Gulf
(1990 and 2003), 6,000 Ore-
gon soldiers, sailors — includ-
ing Coast Guard — Marines,
merchant seamen and airmen
were killed. During that same
time, about 15,000 Oregonians
were wounded in combat and
nearly 1,000 were prisoners.
About 1,000 Oregonians re-
main missing in action from
all of the conflicts.
Oregon highways Tobiason
and the foundation have desig-
nated include:
• U.S. Highway 395, from
California to Washington, is
the World War I Veterans Me-
morial Highway.
• Interstate 5, from Califor-
nia to Washington, is known
as the Korean War Veterans
Memorial Highway and the
Purple Heart Trail.
• A section of I-5 from Al-
bany to Salem is the Atomic
Veterans Memorial Highway.
• U.S. Highway 101, from
Washington to California, is
the Persian Gulf, Afghanistan
and Iraq Veterans Memorial
Highway.
• A section of U.S. High-
way 26, from the Highway 101
intersection to Idaho, is the
POW/MIA Memorial High-
way.
in case of a surge of COVID-19
patients.
St. Charles is experiencing
a difficult start to 2021 as well,
after posting an operating loss
of $4.9 million in the month of
January, the hospital said in a
prepared statement.
“We have put our caregivers
and our patients first through-
out this pandemic, which has
been hard on us financially,”
Adams said in the statement
issued Wednesday. “It is unfor-
tunate that (the union) is now
adding to that financial strain.”
X-ray technologist Kate
Wells, who has worked at St.
Charles for a dozen years, said
she never thought she’d have to
go on strike.
“We are not asking that
much, and they have whittled
down our negotiations to the
point where we won’t go any
lower,” Wells said. “We are just
requesting the least amount of
respect they can give us, and
they are not willing to give us
that. So it’s very frustrating.”
e e
Reporter: 541-633-2117,
sroig@bendbulletin.com
Tobiason is already planning
his Eastern Oregon trip later
this year when U.S. Highway
30 is officially designed the
Oregon Veterans Memorial
Highway. He’s been to nearly
every highway sign dedication
ceremony, racking up more
than 5,000 miles on his vehicle.
“We’ll have a big ceremony
in Ontario,” Tobiason said.
“We should have Idaho offi-
cials there, because their bill
should be done about the same
time.”
e e
kharden@portlandtribune.com
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With a positive test rate
of 3.9%, Oregon is firmly on
track for numbers to con-
tinue downward statewide,
and 1 million vaccine shots
have been administered to
residents.
The governor said she
made the decision to waive
the restrictions “recognizing
the challenges businesses en-
counter when facing a switch
back and forth between ex-
treme risk and other risk lev-
els,” Brown said.
The drop to the higher risk
level meant that restaurants
could offer limited indoor
dining, a key change during
the cold, wet winter months
that have stretched into
March.
Higher numbers would
have required a return to the
tighter restrictions on busi-
nesses, dining, and activities.
Brown’s message did not in-
clude any changes to rules
covering counties already in
the extreme risk level.
Brown had announced
Feb. 23 that 10 counties had
dropped out of the extreme
risk level, the highest of the
four-tier rating system that
also includes high risk, mod-
erate and lower. The higher
the risk level, the more re-
strictions are in place on busi-
nesses, dining and activities.
It was a dose of good news
after a period in which most
of the state had been in ex-
treme risk at one point or an-
other.
“For the second time in a
row, we are seeing great prog-
ress in stopping the spread
of COVID-19 across Oregon
and saving lives,” Brown said
on Feb. 23.
Of the counties on the ex-
treme risk rating prior to Feb.
23, Brown announced seven
had dropped one step to
higher risk: Crook, Jackson,
Lane, Marion, Polk, Umatilla
and Yamhill counties. Mal-
heur and Union dropped to
medium, while Wasco fell all
OSU
Continued from A1
“These plans provide me
with the confidence that
we are on our way back to a
more traditional fall term,
including predominantly
in-person instruction on our
campuses and on-site re-
search, engagement, and ex-
tracurricular programs and
activities,” Alexander wrote
in the email.
It is still too early to know
exactly what a more open fall
term will look like, Coffin
noted. It will depend on the
state’s COVID-19 guidelines,
as well as if the numerous
COVID-19 variants pose a
threat, she said.
“We need to be ready to
adjust, should the variants
increase infections, or should
public health guidelines
change,” Coffin told The Bul-
letin on Thursday.
OSU-Cascades’ student
dorms have been at half ca-
pacity for the entirety of the
2020-21 school year, and
between 40-50% of courses
have been online-only.
The university expects the
majority of classes in the fall
to be held in-person, Coffin
said. But some courses, like
science labs, may still have
capacity limitations.
“Because of the nature of
what happens in a lab, with
people moving around and
not necessarily being sta-
tionary, we have less space to
the way to lower.
Five counties: Benton,
Coos, Douglas, Jefferson and
Josephine are currently on
the extreme list.
Risk level adjustments are
made every two weeks. But
measurements are taken ev-
ery Friday and analyzed each
Monday. The numbers are
published weekly, with the
period between reassign-
ments called “the warning
week.”
With the next assignment
of risk levels set to be an-
nounced March 9 and go into
effect March 12, state officials
evidently saw some counties
trending back up to extreme
risk.
Brown’s office did not say
what counties were of con-
cern. The “warning week”
numbers indicate trends, but
the final status would also be
determined adding in the as-
yet unknown statistics of this
week through Friday.
Of those that dropped out
of the extreme risk category
but are showing a reverse in
trends during the warning
week are Jackson and Mal-
heur counties. Among me-
dium and small counties,
Baker showed an increase in
cases and infection rate.
Less clear is the status of
Marion County, which in-
cludes Salem. It has seen a
moderate upswing in num-
bers. State health officials and
the governor will make the
final decisions based on the
most recent data.
The drop in infections was
part of the recent good news
that has seen overall new
infections down from their
winter holiday period highs.
A third vaccine, made by
Johnson & Johnson, has ar-
rived in the state and the first
100 doses sent to each county,
with a total of 34,000 ex-
pected to immediately follow.
But there was cautionary
news as well. Two potentially
more virulent and easier to
spread versions of the virus
showed up in Oregon.
e e
gwarner@eomediagroup.com
provide (social distancing),”
Coffin said.
The college hasn’t de-
cided whether it will require
mask-wearing on campus
this fall, Coffin said. But be-
cause the federal Centers for
Disease Control and Preven-
tion still recommends social
distancing and wearing face
masks even after being vacci-
nated, it’s likely there will still
be a mask mandate, she said.
The possibility of allowing
spectators at sporting events
in Corvallis, including foot-
ball, will depend on what
state and Pac-12 Conference
regulations look like come
September, said OSU spokes-
person Steve Clark.
Quentin Comus — a soph-
omore at OSU-Cascades who
works in the student life office
— said fellow student life em-
ployees are already preparing
for the return of in-person ex-
tracurricular activities for fall
term. This includes student
clubs meeting again, outdoor
movie nights and more, he
said.
Comus is confident most
students and staff will be vac-
cinated by the fall, and is ex-
cited to return to a more tra-
ditional college experience,
he said.
“I think it’ll be great to
have more people on cam-
pus,” said Comus, 19. “Com-
ing into this fall, I think ev-
eryone will feel safe.”
e e
Reporter: 541-617-7854,
jhogan@bendbulletin.com