A group of Providence employees and local faith leaders traveled to Spokane, Washington August 12th to deliver messages to the sisters of Providence, who were gathering for an annual meeting. They also brought paper dolls to represent each of the over 200 employees who signed postcards to the sisters.
“The faith leaders involved in this effort fully support the mission of the Sisters of Providence,” said Father Robert Krueger, of St Francis of Assisi Church in Portland. “But we are concerned that workers are not being listened to about their desire for a fair election process.”
“Every time we have reached out to attempt to have a dialogue with Providence, we are sent elsewhere,” said Carolyn Johnson, a Group Therapist at Providence Portland. “We have reached out to HR managers, hospital administrators, board members and John Koster. No one is willing to sit down with us and the union we have chosen to try come to an agreement about a fair election process. We hope the sisters will agree to sit down and listen to us.”
Sisters declined to meet with workers at this time, but we left open the door of possibility that they may listen to workers at another time. Employees offered to meet with the sisters at any time.