BEND, Ore. -- St. Charles Health System and the Oregon Nurses Association announced Tuesday that the two groups have come to a tentative agreement on a two-year contract for the St. Charles-Bend nurses. The bargaining unit in Bend will vote on the contract later this week.

“After working through many challenging conversations over the past few months, we have come to an agreement on a contract that both sides support recommending for approval,” said Leslie Toll, caregiver and labor relations director for St. Charles. “I can’t thank everyone involved in this process enough for their time and dedication.”

Labor negotiations began at the Bend hospital campus in April. For the last two sessions, the teams relied on the services of a federal mediator to help them reach consensus on the economic items in the contract including wages, health and welfare benefits and a new short-term disability program.

“The ONA team is unanimously recommending the package for ratification by the members,” said Alison Hamway, ONA labor representative to the Bend nurses. “At the end of the day, we feel both sides worked hard to reach an agreement that both of us can recommend.”

Overall, the changes in the contract language will result in cost savings to the hospital system, when it comes to health and welfare benefits, premium pay expenses and more.

Because of these savings, the health system was able to offer a 3.5 percent wage increase over the two-year contract, to help retain its highly skilled nursing staff and to continue offering important health care services to the community.

“This contract will give us greater flexibility to manage our costs as we continue dealing with challenging economic times and unknown impacts of national health care reform,” said James Diegel, pesident and CEO of St. Charles Health System. “I am so proud of our nurses and our management team for coming together at the negotiating table. Their work will have a profound impact on our ability to continue serving our patients.”