Lane County’s homecare and hospice nurses of the Oregon Nurses Association began its 14-day strike with a rally outside of the building this morning at 10 a.m. 

This action follows months of negotiations for a fair contract from PeaceHealth after the expiration of their previous agreement in April 2023. Historically, these nurses have received equal pay compared to the PeaceHealth hospital nurses. 

However, PeaceHealth’s latest proposal offers a lower compensation to homecare and hospice nurses compared to their hospital counterparts, ONA’s communications manager Kevin Mealy said. 

During this period, the recruitment and retention of nurses have been significantly affected: the unit having only 90 nurses compared to 130 nurses one year ago. “Can you imagine telling the parents of a dying child that you have to leave early because of a PeaceHealth staffing crisis?” ONA member and hospice nurse Heather Herbert said to the crowd. “We are not asking for more, we are not asking for special treatment, we just want equality. The way it has always been,” she said.

The rally featured speakers such as Eugene’s Mayor Lucy Vinis, United States Representative Val Hoyle, Oregon State Senator James Manning and Oregon House Majority Leader Julie Fahey to show their support.

Another ONA member and hospice nurse, Erin Grace, said in a prior interview with the Daily Emerald, “It’s an incredible place to be in as a healer. You come in with a goal of providing comfort and safety and increasing the quality of their life for whatever time they have left.” 

Grace stressed the importance of homecare and hospice nurses’ work, and that the decision to strike was from the desire for the employee’s work to be “extraordinary.” 

Mayor Vinis said, “I am proud to stand here in solidarity with you. I am the mayor of a city that lost its only emergency department.” 

Following the mayor’s speech, Congresswoman Hoyle and Senator Manning delivered remarks directed at PeaceHealth executives, urging them to prioritize patient care while utilizing federal and state funds. 

Following the mayor’s speech, Congresswoman Hoyle said, “If you’re gonna stand on federal money, then you better put patients first,” aimed toward PeaceHealth executives. Similarly, Senator Manning said in his speech, “If you are receiving federal funds and state funds, beware. I am watching you.” 

Alongside the ONA home care and hospice nurses, numerous community members joined the gathering to express their support. “It’s kind of crap that they think they’re any different from us at the hospital,” Julie, a nurse at PeaceHealth Riverbend Hospital, said in regards to  PeaceHealth’s decision to alter the home care and hospice nurses contract. “We’ve always had wage parities between the contracts, we’ve always been treated similar and PeaceHealth on a whim decided that they didn’t want to treat them the same,” she said. 

In a show of solidarity, roughly a dozen members of the Graduate Teaching Fellows Federation at the UO joined the gathering, following its successful negotiations with the UO and narrow avoidance of a strike of its own.

Having had experience with fighting executive boards for fair wages, Carver, a GTFF member, said “They all like to claim that they can’t afford to pay their workers. And that’s not true. I mean, it wasn’t true with the university. I’m sure it’s not true with PeaceHealth. They need to rethink their priorities. Funding their workers can’t be an afterthought. It needs to be in the budget from the start.”

In response to the ONA’s decision to strike, PeaceHealth shared an email statement sent to the Daily Emerald that said, “We respect our caregivers’ rights to engage in lawful union negotiation activities. However, we are deeply disappointed that the union has chosen to strike as we have offered highly competitive proposals that would provide wage improvements either at or beyond market rate.”

The strike is set to continue through Feb. 24, or until an agreement can be made over a fair contract. To find updates or learn more about the ONA strike, visit the strike website at respectournurses.com.