Bonny Wallace

Mercy Medical Center Roseburg, Ore. Oregon Nurses Association (ONA)/United American Nurses (UAN)

Bonny Wallace

Bonny Wallace has been a nurse at Mercy Medical Center in Roseburg, Ore., for 20 years—15 of those years as an obstetrical nurse caring for newborn babies and their mothers.  Always concerned with serving the community, she now works in the Ambulatory Care Center, so that she can reach out to community members in need.

Working at Mercy Medical Center is a legacy for Wallace; her mother was one of the original nurses at the hospital when it opened many years ago.

A lot has changed since Wallace's mother worked at Mercy.  Wallace says the hospital has shifted its priorities from service to the community to its own business interests.

According to Wallace, this has meant more and more patients, but no more nurses. It also has meant that many nurses put in mandatory overtime, and all too often work 12-hour shifts without lunch breaks.

To ensure continued quality patient care and gain a voice in the decisions affecting their work, Wallace and her co-workers began forming a union with the Oregon Nurses Association(ONA)/United American Nurses (UAN). 

“We needed some help and some representation. We needed someone to listen to us when management would not. That’s why we called the union,” says Wallace.

As is too often the case, the hospital refused to let the workers make a free choice and fought back with a campaign of fear and misinformation.

Making the shortage of nurses on the floor even more troublesome, nurses were pulled off patient duty and forced to attend anti-union meetings during their regular shifts.  Wallace says, “The meetings were very demeaning and dehumanizing. We felt embarrassed and insulted by the half-truths they put forward against the union.”

Wallace and her co-workers remained steadfast and won their union in the face of the hospital’s anti-union campaign.  However, one year after having their union certified, the workers have no contract.

Management has come to bargaining meetings unprepared to negotiate, stalling the negotiations. The nurses were forced to call in a federal mediator and still wait for management to respect their choice for union representation.