UPDATE: We reached a tentative contract agreement!

After seven months of negotiations, an informational picket, a community town hall, a rally and support for our community, elected officials and labor partners, we reached a tentative agreement with Columbia Memorial Hospital's administrators.

The agreement includes safe staffing protections, protections on scheduled hours, wage increases and education fund improvements, all of which will make our hospital safer and better prepared to care for our community in the future.

Thank you to everyone for your support! We could not have reached this agreement without you!

ONA nurses will review the agreement and will hold a ratification vote in the coming weeks.

We need your help. Your local nurses at Columbia Memorial Hospital are fighting for a fair contract, one that protects our community’s safety and ensures everyone in Astoria has access to safe, affordable health care.

Columbia Memorial’s roots go back to the 1880s as a fixture in Astoria. We are proud of the nearly 140 years of service to our community. Because of additional clinics and the cancer center, you can be treated here in most cases. That means fewer trips to Portland and more time doing things that matter to you.

We have made many sacrifices over the years to make sure you receive the best care available. But, it has come to light that Columbia Memorial is one of the most profitable hospitals in Oregon and is running an operating margin of nearly 12 percent. While we agree that having a healthy reserve is necessary, few efforts have been made to decrease patient costs, improve staffing ratios, or to recruit and retain high quality nurses our community deserves.    

As nurses we’ve had many discussions over what is best for patients, the community, ourselves and our families. Our priorities are as follows:

• Investment in continuing education and training: We want to be well trained to provide the very best care for our patients to provide the latest treatments and procedures, lowering costs and length of stays
• Consistent scheduling: Unlike many jobs, nurses’ schedules fluctuate due to the number of patients. We need guaranteed better minimum protections on hours for economic stability and work/life balance. We need our nurses to know they can pay their bills each month.
• Safe staffing: Having the proper number of nurses on shift heavily affects patient care and our entire community. Nurses need their voice in staffing levels protected in our union contract, along with providing break relief nurses, so patient loads do not double to cover someone else’s meal or break.
• Fair wages: Columbia Memorial is struggling to recruit and retain quality nursing staff. This affects patient care and can result in delays and long wait times. Right now, multiple departments and clinics are short staffed and cannot fill nursing positions.

Our contract expired May 31, but we are still working because our community is important to us. We need you to sign this petition letting the administration and board of trustees at Columbia Memorial Hospital know we have your support so we can continue to provide the high-quality, affordable health care you deserve.

Thank you!

Your local nurses at Columbia Memorial