By Don McIntosh
A group of 448 workers at OHSU Hillsboro Medical Center voted more than two-to-one to unionize with Oregon AFSCME, in mail ballots counted on Jan. 7. The official tally was 164 to 61 in favor of the union.
“I’m feeling ecstatic,” said emergency room receptionist Shellie Powers, the worker who first contacted the union back in April 2020. “It’s so overwhelming.”
Oregon AFSCME organizer Sarah Thompson said a management anti-union campaign advised by Bullard Law seemed to backfire and turn workers toward the union.
The hospital and its nearby facilities were known as Tuality Health Care until 2016, when Tuality became a clinical partner of Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) and adopted the OHSU name. AFSCME represents about 7,000 workers at OHSU’s main campus, and in October 2020 the union presented signed union cards from a majority of workers, seeking union recognition under Oregon’s public employee union law. But hospital management said
Coronavirus in Oregon: State reports 764 new cases, 8 new deaths
Updated Jan 06, 2021;
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The Oregon Health Authority on Wednesday reported 764 new confirmed or presumptive coronavirus cases and 8 more fatalities.
The agency said the case count was lower than expected because of a server outage that affected the state’s database. The count was expected to return to normal by Thursday, the state said.
After three weeks of declining case counts, that number rose by 17% for the week ending Sunday, though reported deaths dropped by 13 from the previous week, a 15% decrease. Still, December was by far the deadliest month of the pandemic in Oregon with nearly 470 fatalities.
Coronavirus updates Thursday: Lane County reports 106 cases
Register-Guard
Lane County has reported 106 cases of confirmed or presumptive cases of COVID-19 Thursday, raising the countywide total to 7,456. The death toll remains at 95. There are 37 people hospitalized, an increase of two since Wednesday. There are seven patients in intensive care unit beds and one on a ventilator, which is unchanged from Wednesday.
The count of those considered infections is 381, an increase of 3.8 percent since Wednesday s 367. There are 540 under monitoring, down slightly from Wednesday s 546, and 5,319 first vaccine doses have been administered, up 12 percent from Wednesday s 4,760.
Oregon reports 8 deaths, 764 cases
The Oregon Health Authority reported eight more coronavirus-related deaths Wednesday, raising the death toll to 1,558. OHA also reported 764 new confirmed or presumptive cases of COVID-19, bring the statewide total to 120,223. The case count was lower than anticipated because a d