The legislation, HB 2792, would require a hospital to report to the Bureau of Labor and Industries and the Oregon Health Authority the cost to recruit, solicit and advertise and pay for replacement workers in the event of a strike.
The House Committee on Labor and Workplace Standards held a public hearing Feb. 10, hearing testimony from supporters and opponents of the bill, the Legislature’s website shows.
“House Bill 2792 is a simple, commonsense solution: if a hospital chooses to spend money on replacing striking workers, they must report it,” Oregon Nurses Association Executive Director Anne Tan Piazza testified, according to the site.
“That is not an unreasonable request. It is a necessary safeguard to ensure that our healthcare system is operating in the best interests of Oregonians, not just hospital executives.
“Let me be clear: this bill is not about preventing hospitals from preparing for strikes. It is about ensuring that when they do, they do so with full public accountability. It is about ensuring that the dollars hospitals receive from taxpayers, patients, and insurance plans are being used transparently. It is about ensuring that Oregon’s hospitals are upholding their obligations as public-serving institutions. It is about ensuring that we, as a state, are not allowing our healthcare system to be manipulated into a tool for union-busting, hidden behind financial secrecy.”
Sean Kolmer, executive vice president of external affairs for the Hospital Association of Oregon, opposes the bill. In a statement shared with Becker’s, he described it as “harmful, diverting valuable resources away from what we all should be focusing on — patient care.”
“We don’t need this bill to know that strikes are expensive, and we don’t need to add more unfunded mandates on hospitals,” the statement said. “More than half of Oregon hospitals are consistently losing money. To keep hospital doors open and avoid layoffs, we should be getting rid of laws that do not benefit patients, not passing new ones.”
The testimony occurred as Providence employees entered a fifth week of strikes at facilities in Oregon.
Nearly 5,000 employees across 11 bargaining units — including nurses at eight Providence hospitals, as well as some physicians at Portland-based Providence St. Vincent Medical Center and the Providence Women’s Clinic — went on strike beginning Jan. 10 in what is estimated to be the largest healthcare strike in Oregon’s history. Some bargaining units represented by the Oregon Nurses Association remain without ratified labor contracts.
Work on the bill began before the Providence strike, Mr. Nelson said, according to KGW.
“Our state spends a tremendous amount of dollars on Medicaid, a huge chunk of which goes to our hospitals,” Mr. Nelson said, according to the news station. “And so, if hospitals are going to take that much of public dollars — dollars that you and I work hard for — then they should have to tell us where they’re spending that money.”
Providence told Becker’s in a statement that “without temporary replacement nurses, Oregon would have a significant public health crisis anytime nurses choose to strike.
“To ensure operations can continue during a strike, hospitals work through an agency to recruit the temporary workforce needed to continue providing patient care safely.
“Providence has not taken a position on HB 2792.”
More information about the bill is available here.
