On the Monday before the start of the ongoing Providence strike, Natalie Barron, a nursing instructor at Portland Community College and per diem nurse at the Providence Portland Medical Center, received an alarming message: She would have to report to work at Providence on the first day of the strike or be barred from teaching there in the spring.

Barron was stunned. As part of her Portland Community College (PCC) job, she supervises nursing students at Providence sites. She was not scheduled to work as either a nurse or as a professor at Providence when the strike kicked off, and hadn’t planned on crossing the picket line regardless.

But PCC, her primary employer, was telling her she would have to cross the picket line to work as replacement labor at Providence, or face consequences that could imperil her teaching position.

Barron’s teaching duties at PCC’s Sylvania campus this term include overseeing nursing students in clinicals at Providence St. Vincent, which she would be unable to do if Providence barred her from their facilities. The mandate from Providence seemed to defy standard labor law.

“I am seeking clarity on whether PCC is directing me, as a PCC employee, to report to Providence, an employer to whom I have no obligations, on January 10th,” Barron wrote in an email to a PCC dean later on Monday, January 6. “I am not scheduled to work as a clinical instructor that day, nor have I been informed of any mandatory meetings or requirements ahead of time.”

Adam Wright, the dean of the nursing program, affirmed Barron's fears in an email—PCC employees who were also Providence employees were being asked to report to Providence on the first day of the strike.

That message was confirmed by Jamie Thiem, an education program coordinator at Providence, who stated in an email to Wright that Providence would bar any employees who declined to report to their work site on the first day of the strike.

“If they choose not to report and check in with their leader on the first day, they would not be allowed to participate in clinical experiences with their students and another approved and cleared faculty member would need to fill in,” Thiem wrote.

On Tuesday afternoon, Wright wrote to Barron to tell her that “we need to honor Providence’s request to avoid losing student opportunities.” 

“I want you to understand that having worked at Providence for many years, I empathize with you (and all healthcare providers) as a professional nurse who has to make hard decisions about demonstrating the importance of improving the quality of care delivered to our patients,” Wright wrote. “This request to report is not punitive but rather an opportunity for you (and us) to influence change at a very early stage of the careers of future nursing leaders.”

Emiliano Vega, a professor of mathematics and computer science and the faculty grievance officer, said PCC was in effect ordering its employees to break a strike at a private institution. 

“To tell another institution we’re going to stop your employee from helping students learn at our institution unless you send them here, on a day they're not scheduled, on the day a strike starts, and make them work for us—it’s as close as you can get without actually writing the words,” Vega said.

PCC’s attempted intervention on behalf of Providence was made more galling by the fact that Barron was planning to strike with her fellow Providence nurses—and the circumstances under which she was supposed to report left her and her colleagues with a number of questions: Would Barron, for instance, be reporting to Providence as a PCC employee? Or as a Providence employee? Which organization would be paying her? And which would be liable if anything were to happen on her shift? 

Later that week, Danielle Holmes, a labor attorney with the Tedesco Law Group, wrote to a PCC administrator to demand that the college not require Barron to report to Providence at the beginning of the strike.

“PCC’s directive that RN Barron perform work for another employer—one that she has chosen within her capacity as a nurse to withhold labor from—is outrageous,” Holmes wrote.

Holmes, whose firm represents PCC faculty, warned that requiring Barron to report to Providence would be in violation of its collective bargaining agreement with faculty by unilaterally changing Barron’s working conditions and pressuring her not to engage in union activities at Providence.

In the end, Providence relented: The health system wrote to nursing school partners on January 10 to confirm that “Providence employed RNs who also serve as employees of your nursing programs for instruction purposes will be provided access to Providence hospitals for this purpose regardless of their participation in the strikes.”

PCC, in turn, communicated to its faculty that clinical rotations would be delayed. Vega said faculty have not received any update on the situation since then, and James Hill, director of public relations at PCC, confirmed to the Mercury that the college has not resumed rotations.

“We recognize that our faculty members who are also Providence employees face the ethical dilemma of potentially crossing picket lines,” Hill wrote. “Additionally, we understand that our students may experience anxiety and ethical concerns about participating in the strike environment to complete their clinicals, especially since some are Providence employees as well. Again, this is why we have decided to delay these clinical rotations.”

Nevertheless, Vega said PCC’s initial handling of the situation was emblematic of larger problems at the institution vis-a-vis its employees.

“The general problem is that this is a familiar theme that PCC employees have seen in the last number of years with the college, which is, ‘Hey, we empathize with you, we really hear you—now do what we want you to do,’” Vega said.

For Michelle DuBarry, vice president for communications for the Portland Community College Faculty Federation and Academic Professionals, the entire incident was a reminder of the importance of the Providence strikes. 

“We’ve had a lot of our employees join the picket line at Providence, and that kind of solidarity with other workers is really important to us, because what this incident shows is that our bosses are also in solidarity with each other,” DuBarry said. “Union members really need to stick together across different sectors.”

Meanwhile, Providence has reached tentative agreements with eight of its bargaining units representing Providence nurses across the state, but no contracts have been ratified yet. Clinicals at other Portland area institutions, like the University of Portland, have also been delayed as a result of the ongoing strike.

Hill wrote that PCC remains committed to its relationship with Providence.

“Providence, like all of our healthcare and industry partners, remains a valuable resource for our healthcare training, student success and building the workforce,” Hill wrote. “We will continue to monitor the strike and adjust accordingly as conditions change.”