McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center began as a community hospital built by the community, but over time has turned into a huge money maker for its out-of-state investors and local physicians at the Oregon Medical Group. But those profits aren’t invested back into the community. Instead, management at McKenzie-Willamette is ignoring staff concerns around patient and worker safety and are threatening to outsource local jobs that have a critical impact on patient care*. 
 
Workers like Gypsy have been fighting outsourcing efforts since the Spring of 2021. Gypsy was working in a hotel when the pandemic hit Oregon and as the travel industry was hit hard by the health crisis, she decided to work in healthcare. Healthcare seemed like a stable choice in the ever-changing world where COVID wreaked havoc. Believing that she would have good healthcare and wages, with solid benefits, she accepted a role as housekeeper at McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center. Her beliefs were quickly challenged, and her new healthcare world became fraught with risks and sacrifices needed to keep her community safe and provide the quality care patients deserve. 
 
Though Gypsy eventually contracted COVID, she does not regret her decision to work in healthcare because it’s rewarding to care for patients, though she admits this latest surge in COVID is exhausting. She feels that outsourcing creates instability for patients and workers alike, and questions why management would make this decision at a time when the community should be able to count on a clean hospital and a reliable workforce. Instead of recognition for her hard and important work, Ms. Smith was disciplined by management which she believes is the result of her being outspoken about stopping the outsourcing of her job and speaking up for her and her fellow workers’ union rights. 
 
I want management to know that I stand by my caregivers at McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center, like Gypsy, who are advocating for quality patient care with safe staffing and fighting the rich investors who are lining their pockets at the expense of low wage frontline workers. I want McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center management to keep healthcare jobs in our community and settle a good contract with my local essential hospital caregivers now – protect patients and protect jobs.  
 
My family and I are counting on you to invest back into the community by investing in our caregivers! Patients can pay the price when companies put profit before people. 
 
* Superbugs vs. Outsourced Cleaners: Employment Arrangements and the Spread of Healthcare-Associated Infections by Adam Seth Litwin, Ariel C. Avgar, Edmund R. Becker :: SSRN [https://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2738770]