As corporate mergers reshape Oregon’s healthcare systems, more workers are choosing to unionize in an effort to preserve a role in workplace decision-making.

New data from Axios finds more than 70% of Oregon’s hospitals are now in concentrated ownership. Such mergers can lead to worse working conditions for staff.

Respiratory therapist Erica Taylor is one of 43 technologists at Providence Hood River Memorial Hospital who voted last month to join the Oregon Nurses Association. It is her first union job, and she said co-workers with union experience spoke highly of union workplaces.

“They would be like, ‘Working for a union outfit is always better than working for a non-union outfit,’” Taylor said. “My dad was a longtime union member. You just always seemingly have better work environments, better relationships with management.”

In 2016, Providence merged with Saint Joseph Health, creating one of the largest nonprofit health systems in the United States.

A representative from the Oregon Nurses Association said when workers negotiate union contracts, they are advised to include language that protects them in the event of a merger, change of ownership or layoffs.

Providence did not respond in time to a request for comment.

Taylor said she and her co-workers are often alone during their 12-hour shifts, meaning they cannot leave during lunch breaks. But she said management still asks them to clock out every day. When she learned that was illegal, Taylor said, she tried for a year and a half to work out a solution with management. When no solution came, she turned to the Oregon Nurses Association.

“That seems crazy,” Taylor said. “I wouldn’t ask management to work for free, and I don’t appreciate being asked to work for free.”

The Oregon Nurses Association now represents more than 25,000 nurses and frontline healthcare workers across Oregon.

Source: Public News Service