St. Charles Bend and the union that represents its nurses are calling in a federal mediator after 17 negotiation sessions over nearly five months have failed to produce a contract.

The mediator will help the parties address numerous points of disagreement, including crucial issues such as pay increases, monthly health insurance costs, earned time off and disability coverage.

The Oregon Nurses Association’s most recent contract expired July 1, and nurses have been working under the expired contract since then. The new, three-year contract would cover 2016 and expire in 2018.

John Nangle, chairman of St. Charles Bend’s ONA bargaining unit and a nurse in the hospital’s emergency department, said the nurses’ main concern is ensuring they’re paid adequately and given enough breaks so the hospital does not face staffing shortages. St. Charles’ proposals around things like wages and premiums could further damage the hospital’s ability to attract and retain nurses, he said.

“One of the main things is St. Charles has put a lot of economics on the table this year,” he said, “and we’ve never seen anything like that before.”

The last time the hospital and nurses union brought in a federal mediator was in 2012, when more than 400 people picketed outside the hospital to show their frustration over the stalled agreement. At that time, the two primary points of disagreement concerned changing the role of charge nurses and eliminating float nurses, who assist throughout the hospital where necessary.

This time, the ONA says there are 30 points of disagreement.

The ONA, which has 716 members at St. Charles Bend, wants the hospital to raise wages by 5 percent on July 1, 2016, and July 1, 2017. Because the contract was not approved by July 1, those dates will change to the ratification date.

It also wanted a 5 percent raise effective July 1. St. Charles has told the ONA it will not apply that raise retroactively once the final contract is adopted, Nangle said.

St. Charles, by contrast, wants to raise wages by 2.25 percent on July 1, 2016, and 2.5 percent on July 1, 2017, according to the ONA. It would also raise wages 2 percent upon the contract’s ratification.

St. Charles would not make a representative available for comment. However, in a statement, Rebecca Berry, the health system’s vice president of human resources, said both sides agreed a federal mediator would be the best way to move forward.

“We are confident that we will be able to reach agreement on the few remaining items in the contract and are looking forward to continuing our strong working relationship with the ONA,” she said.

Mediation sessions are scheduled for Sept. 1 and 2, and Nangle said he’s hopeful the two sides can work through the issues in that time. There is no deadline to ratify a contract, he said.

Ultimately, adequate nurse staffing is a patient safety issue, Nangle said. For about a decade, inadequate break time has been a “really big problem” for nurses at St. Charles Bend, he said. That can contribute to nurse fatigue and delayed care for patients, Nangle said.

Nangle said he personally knows the feeling of coming into work and realizing the unit is short-staffed, as do other St. Charles nurses.

“They’re worried they’re not going to be able to provide the care they need to because they’re working short-handed,” he said, “and they’re working a lot of times without breaks. I think there is a lot of stress throughout the hospital regarding staffing.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0304,

tbannow@bendbulletin.com