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SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

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The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

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Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

More Than 1,100 Oregon Health Care Workers Unionize

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Wednesday, April 27, 2016   

PORTLAND, Ore. - The largest group of Oregon health-care workers in more than two decades approved a union contract in Springfield this week.

More than 1,100 caregivers at PeaceHealth Sacred Heart Medical Center joined the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 49, approving a three-year contract on Monday evening.

Spencer Saxe, a certified nursing assistant, was on the bargaining team between Sacred Heart management and workers.

"I think we came to a strong agreement in the end that still allows management to do what they need to do to run the hospital," he said, "but it also respects the work that the front-line caregivers are giving."

The workers will receive a pay increase of 21 percent over the three-year span of the contract, as well as pay incentives to work beyond 40 hours a week and more affordable family health care.

The large medical center serves many central and southern Oregonians, and occasionally northern Californians as well. Nurses, hospitalists and engineers at Riverbend's Sacred Heart also are negotiating with management for representation.

Lorie Quinn, an environmental services technician at Sacred Heart, said she and other caregivers at the medical center are actively supporting her coworkers' efforts to unionize.

"They're in negotiations right now and some of them have been for a while," she said, "and just because our contract is settled doesn't mean we're going to go sit down on the sidelines. We're even more pumped to go help them out."

Meg Niemi, president of SEIU Local 49, said the trend of health-care workers seeking union representation is spreading.

"What you saw at Sacred Heart is something we're hearing from caregivers really around the region, which is that they want to be able to stand up for their patients," she said, "and they also want to make sure that for the hard work that they do for these very profitable health systems, they should be able to have middle-class jobs."


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