Your bargaining team completed another full day of mediation with MCMC, and we are pleased to report movement was made in our efforts to reach a final agreement.  We are cautiously optimistic we can continue to make progress and recognize that your work away from the table distributing flyers and yard signs, our solidarity displayed at our union meetings, the buttons you are wearing in the workplace, and your voice throughout the community was no doubt a big contributing factor in our progress.  Thank you to those of you who attended the membership meeting; we appreciate your input.  Your

Our bargaining team met with management last week to continue the process of bargaining our contract, and we are also looking forward to Friday, February 10^th, when we return to negotiations.

Because management has been rigid and uncooperative in our bargaining sessions, we have had to go into a formal mediation process to make any progress. We took our first of three mediation sessions to again emphasize to the Hospital our position that we are not second-class employees, and we expect our standards and benefits to be on par with other professional employees within the Hospital. Right now

OFNHP is bringing our collective voice to Salem to advocate for the interests of healthcare workers and the people we serve. In the middle our state of emergency, the Oregon Association Health and Hospital Systems (OAHHS) had the hubris to state in an open hearing that it is their intent to attempt to repeal the 2015 RN staffing law. They want to eliminate what limited protections we have for staffing in our hospitals.

This blatant disregard for safety and standards of care in our hospitals cannot be tolerated. OFNHP is working in coalition with ONA and SEIU on a hospital and home health

President of the American Federation of Teachers, Nurses and Healthcare Professionals (AFT), Randi Weingarten, has joined the chorus of voices in support of OFNHP's recent picket at Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center, saying that the time has come for Kaiser, and all healthcare employers, to ensure safe staffing for their healthcare professionals and patient. As an affiliate of AFT, we are part of a national network fighting for progressive change and to ensure a positive shift in our healthcare industry, and through that collaboration we are seeing this movement for healthcare justice

On January 13^th, around 200 OFNHP members, community supporters, and patients picketed outside of Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center to demand a change. "The employer LOVES it when we are divided, because it means we are weak, and when we are weak, we lose sight of the fact that we have a common cause and a common foe,” said Nicole Brun-Cottan, a physical therapist and leader in the Pro unit. “They take the trouble to do this because they are TERRIFIED of how strong we are when we step together?”

We also projected a message on the side of both Sunnyside and the Kaiser Permanente

As of 5:15 on January 10th, the President of Oregon Federation of Nurses and Healthcare Professionals (OFNHP), Jonathon Baker, filed a "demand to bargain" setting the expectation that Kaiser Permanente negotiates with our Bargaining Unit leaders over the impacts of the recent situation with our members.

Jonathon has issued this statement upon the filing of the "demand to bargaing":

"Today, as of 5:15pm, I issued a formal Demand to Bargain on behalf of all Kaiser bargaining units to Jeff Collins, President of KPNW to bargain the impacts of unsafe staffing conditions both for our members and our