Kari Thompson

Oregon Nurses End 46-Day Strike with Pay and Staffing Agreements

After 46 days on the picket line, nurses walked back into eight Providence hospitals across Oregon in good spirits after ratifying a new contract with their employer February 26. Their effort was bolstered by striking doctors, nurse practitioners, and other hospitalists at Providence St. Vincent’s, and doctors, nurses, and midwives at the Providence Women’s Clinics.

Oregon Nurses Reject Proposal, Keep Striking

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Author(s): 
Kari Thompson

Nurses across Oregon remain on strike at Providence Health and Services more than a month after they first walked out. Members at all eight hospitals rejected a tentative agreement by more than 80 percent when it was put to a vote in early February.

The union says the hospital continues to bargain in bad faith and has not made enough movement on workers’ priorities.

Don’t Panic—Organize!

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Author(s): 
Kari Thompson

The Trump administration has swept into office with a volley of attacks: Gutting programs that acknowledge race and gender inequality. Freezing funding for a wide swath of programs (though that order has already been rescinded). New work rules. Immigration raids. Replacing career civil servants with political lackeys. A mass email inviting federal employees to resign.

The firehose of bad ideas over the past week is alarming and overwhelming. It’s never been more important for organizers to remember: workers do have power.

Nurses and Doctors Are on Strike at Eight Oregon Hospitals

Declaring that understaffing had them “running on empty,” 5,000 nurses, doctors, midwives, and nurse practitioners walked off the job January 10 in an open-ended strike at Providence Health and Services, the dominant hospital chain in the Pacific Northwest.

The strikers work at eight hospitals plus women’s health clinics across Oregon. They’re demanding proper staffing, affordable health insurance, and competitive pay that can attract and retain seasoned workers.

Michigan Nurses Win the Largest Union Election in Years

It is the largest successful union election in recent memory: 10,000 nurses will be joining the Teamsters. They work for hospital conglomerate Corewell Health at eight hospitals and one outpatient facility, all in southeast Michigan.

“We’re so excited we can hardly stand it,” said Katherine Wallace, a nurse at the hospital in Troy, who has been a core part of the campaign since October 2023.

The union won the November election with 63 percent, with more than 85 percent voting. The union committee is Nurses for Nurses, part of Teamsters Joint Council 43.

Walmart Warehouse Workers Win First Union in Canada

Eight hundred workers near Toronto have won the first Walmart warehouse union in Canada or the U.S.

“Honestly I was pretty nervous at first because I didn’t want to lose my job,” said 29-year employee Rodolfo Pilozo, a member of “Team Red,” the organizing committee behind the September victory.

The Walmart distribution center is in Mississauga, Ontario, an hour from the western New York border. Workers there began organizing last December to join Unifor, Canada’s largest private-sector union.