News

March 25, 2025

(Tualatin, Ore.) - To reflect the addition of new bargaining units and growth of membership, the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association (PNWHMA) will now be known as Northwest Medicine United (NWMU). Since 2022, nine additional bargaining units have been organized under NWMU, and three of those units settled their first contracts in recent months. The bargaining units now include adult, pediatric, OB and palliative care hospitalists, ED providers, urgent care providers, adult and pediatric subspecialists, and primary care and women’s health providers. In response to the exponential growth, the executive team of the union approved a name change to better reflect the diversity of providers and practice locations it represents.

Feb. 5, 2025

If ratified, this would be the first contract for the more than 70 hospitalists who formed their union in August 2023.

After more than a year of bargaining and 27 days on the strike line, hospitalists from Providence St. Vincent, represented by the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association, reached a tentative agreement with Providence Oregon. This is a historic agreement and the first for the more than 70 hospitalists at St. Vincent who have been on strike with registered nurses (RNs) from eight Providence hospitals and the doctors, RNs, advanced practice providers, and midwives from the Providence Women's Clinic since January 10. 

Dec. 30, 2024

11 Providence bargaining units from 8 hospitals and 6 clinics, including physicians, issue 10-day strike notice to Providence Oregon

(Portland, Ore.) - After a week of intensive bargaining followed by a 5-day cooling off period and additional mediated discussions, physicians, nurses, physician associates, nurse midwives, and nurse practitioners (among others) delivered a 10-day notice to Providence management of their intent to strike. The notice informed management that the nearly 5,000 frontline healthcare workers intend to begin their open-ended strike on January 10, 2025, at 6:00 a.m.

May 8, 2024

The group is the latest in a wave of union organizing at Oregon’s second-largest health system as rumblings of an OHSU and Legacy merger continue.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) - On May 7, physicians, physician associates and nurse practitioners at Legacy’s Primary Care clinics announced their intent to unionize with the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association (PNWHMA). The 150 providers are unionizing to ensure patient safety; increase retention, recruitment and respect of caregivers; implement safe staffing that will decrease burnout while improving caregiver wellbeing; and have a voice at the table as the details of the OHSU and Legacy merger unfold. The group submitted union authorization cards to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) May 8. The NLRB is expected to hold a hearing and set an election date in the coming weeks. 

Jan. 10, 2024

(Portland, Ore.) - More than 70 doctors, nurse practitioners and physician associates who work as healthcare providers in Providence Immediate Care Clinics in the Portland area will begin voting on whether to form a union at the end of this month. The union will include urgent care providers at Providence clinics in Portland, Canby, Sherwood, Happy Valley, Tigard and Hillsboro.

Ballots will be counted at 3:30 p.m. on February 21 by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

Dec. 27, 2023

The group is the latest in a wave of union organizing at Oregon’s second-largest health system

(PORTLAND, Ore.) – On Dec. 26, physicians at Legacy’s women’s health clinics announced their intent to unionize with the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association (PNWHMA). The 17 doctors are unionizing to improve recruitment, retention and respect of staff; ensure patient safety and caregiver well-being through safe staffing; and to have a voice at the table as OHSU and Legacy become one health system. The group submitted union authorization cards to the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Dec. 27. The NLRB is expected to hold a hearing and set an election date in the coming weeks.

Dec. 14, 2023

(Portland, OR) - A small group of palliative care physicians at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center voted to unionize Dec. 12. The 4-member team will join a group of more than 70 hospitalists at Providence St. Vincent who voted to join the Pacific Northwest Hospital Medicine Association (PNWHMA) in August. The PNWHMA is a physician and advanced practice provider union represented by the American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and staffed by the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA).

The palliative care specialists will work together with their hospitalist colleagues to win a fair first contract that ensures safe staffing, fair compensation and benefits, a healthy work environment, and strengthens patients’ and providers’ voices on care and safety issues.

Nov. 17, 2023

(PORTLAND, Ore.) – Nearly 250 doctors, nurse practitioners and physician assistants at all eight Legacy Health hospitals across Oregon and Washington are headed towards a union election.

An overwhelming majority of Legacy Health’s hospital doctors and advanced practice providers filed union authorization cards with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Sept. 29.  Health care professionals at Legacy are unionizing to improve patient care and ensure providers at the bedside have a voice in decisions that impact patient care, community health and their colleagues' working conditions.

Nov. 17, 2023

Nearly 200 Hospital Doctors in Oregon and Washington Join the White Coat Labor Movement.

(PORTLAND, Ore.) – Doctors at six Legacy Health hospitals in Oregon and Washington overwhelmingly voted to unionize this week. The hospital doctors, or hospitalists, are unionizing to improve local health care and ensure frontline providers have a voice in the decisions that impact their patients’ care, communities’ health and hospital working conditions.

Aug. 10, 2023

(PORTLAND, Ore.) – On Tuesday, August 1, ballots were counted in a union election for more than 70 physicians at Providence St. Vincent Medical Center in Portland, Oregon. Eighty-seven percent of doctors voted in favor of unionization, despite vocal opposition from Providence executives in the lead up to the vote. Hospitalists at St. Vincent will now gain collective bargaining rights—meaning the hospital administration will be obligated to meet and negotiate in good faith with doctors over their wages, benefits, and working conditions.