Oregon Nurses Association Union making progress

MEDFORD, Ore. – The Oregon Nurses Association union (ONA) says it has reached an agreement with Asante Rogue Regional Medical Center.

For months workers have been asking for increases in wages, adequate staffing, additional resources, and more.

ONA representatives tell us that the lack of these have been driving a lot of nurses to leave the profession.

But the union says they’ve taken a big step in the right direction.

The ONA negotiations team sat down with hospital representatives at the end of October.

It took hours until an agreement was reached, which the ONA says addressed one of their main demands: increases in staffing.

Which is something they say, is beneficial in multiple contexts.

ONA Spokesperson, Kevin Mealy said, “you’re less likely to get infections, you’re less likely to need follow up care, you get out of the hospital quicker, which helps in terms of costs. So, it’s cheaper for patients when we have more nurses to the team, and it actually saves the hospital money in the long term.”

The agreement is only under a tentative contract.

So, this means that it will be brought to other nurses at rogue regional to vote on, next week.