(C) Daily Kos This story was originally published by Daily Kos and is unaltered. . . . . . . . . . . Breaking: Hospice and Home Care Nurses to Strike at PeaceHealth [1] ['This Content Is Not Subject To Review Daily Kos Staff Prior To Publication.'] Date: 2024-01-24 Heroes. That’s what the executives at PeaceHealth in Eugene, Oregon called their nurses during the pandemic. They even put a big banner in front of the building proclaiming “Heroes Work Here!” and gave them buttons to wear. While the executive team was staying safe from sickness in their multi-million dollar homes, it was the nurses who were caring for the sick and dying patients during the pandemic, and often getting sick themselves. But now that it’s time to renew their contracts and cover just the basics of cost-of-living increases and safe staffing for hospice and home care RNs, those same executives are telling them they don’t deserve a raise or support. Keep in mind that these same executives make 10 to 30 times what experienced nurses make, and not a single one of them are medical care providers. Want to know why healthcare is so expensive in America? Because instead of paying for actual healthcare, your money is helping these vultures buy boats and third houses. These nurses have already been working for nearly a year without a contract because PeaceHealth refused to negotiate at all, much less in good faith. You know the worst part? Just a single bonus check (not their outrageous pay, but the outrageous bonus check they get on top of their pay), from a single executive for a single year, would cover the entirety of what nearly 400 nurses are asking for over the entire course of a new four year contract. Where would you rather your healthcare dollars go? And many of those nurses are hospice nurses! Talk about the tip of the spear in caring for dying COVID patients. They deserve so much more than cost of living increases. These nurses are angels on earth, doing God’s work. And now, those same executives are threatening to cancel health insurance coverage for any nurse who goes on strike. At a hospital chain. Are you kidding me? Many of these nurses are the primary income earners for their households. After a year of being ignored and insulted and denigrated by PeaceHealth Management without a contract, these nurses have reluctantly voted to strike should PeaceHealth continue to ignore their needs. They won’t get paid. They can’t use their PTO. And they don’t qualify for unemployment benefits. They do NOT want to strike, because they care so much for their patients and are terrified for their patients’ care. But they are, sadly, left with no other recourse. PeaceHealth is also threatening to lock these experienced and compassionate nurses out and bring in travel nurses to replace them, which is insane, since the costs of paying the agencies for those travel nurses and the overtime those nurses will have to work to cover the patient load is MORE than the union is asking for in the contract. But this is about union busting, not healthcare. And this comes just weeks after PeaceHealth shut down the only emergency room south of the Willamette River. Their greed is disgusting, and it has to stop. If you live in the PNW or care about nurses, I encourage you to let PeaceHealth and your elected representatives know how you feel. Watch this space for updates and coverage of this evolving situation. I will be creating a GoFundMe page to help cover some of the expenses for the hospice nurses at PeaceHealth Eugene. Editor’s note: This story was updated to reflect a potential strike. A date has not yet been set. [END] --- [1] Url: https://www.dailykos.com/stories/2024/1/24/2219178/-Breaking-Hospice-and-Home-Care-Nurses-to-Strike-at-PeaceHealth?pm_campaign=front_page&pm_source=latest_community&pm_medium=web Published and (C) by Daily Kos Content appears here under this condition or license: Site content may be used for any purpose without permission unless otherwise specified. via Magical.Fish Gopher News Feeds: gopher://magical.fish/1/feeds/news/dailykos/