Providence Portland Medical Center nurses went on strike on Monday, with 1,300 employees walkeing off the job in Portland’s first nurses’ strike in 22 years. The strike is planned to last for five days.

The first nurses’ strike in Portland in 22 years began early Monday at Providence Portland Medical Center, where 1,300 nurses walked off the job.

The 100 nurses at Providence hospital in Seaside and 400 at the health giant’s home health and hospice service joined the five-day work stoppage soon after.

The two sides have been unable to craft a mutually agreeable deal. The union argues that its members’ primary demand is new minimum staffing rules to address chronic understaffing they say has become the norm during the pandemic.

“This isn’t just about money and never has been,” the Oregon Nurses Association said in a statement Thursday. “It’s about sick time and paid time off to care for ourselves and our families, ensuring safe staffing so our patients are properly cared for, and making our careers sustainable.”

Providence argues that it has made a fair offer that would have increased average wages by 12% in the first year and an additional 3% in the second and third. The offer also included a $2,500 bonus and 30 more hours of paid time off over three years.

The two sides cannot agree on how much the nurses get paid today. Providence said in a press release that “the current average full-time equivalent salary for a Providence Portland nurse is $128,000.”

The union claims that figure is significantly inflated. The median salary for nurses, the union said, is about $99,000.

Providence has hired between 300 and 400 replacement nurses to staff its Portland medical center during the strike, nearly 1,000 fewer than its typical headcount.

Providence Portland has canceled non-emergency surgeries and drastically curtailed other services. Administrators said nearby patients suffering life-threatening conditions should still seek care at Providence Portland, but advised those who aren’t nearby, or whose needs aren’t urgent, to seek care at other hospitals.

The Oregon Nurses Association said patients should not delay medical care in response to the strike and that it did not consider seeking care at the hospital to be crossing its picket line.

As the strike deadline loomed last week, the Oregon Nurses Association blasted Providence officials for refusing to continue negotiations. Providence countered that it has been negotiating since October with no deal and that managers were too busy trying to hire temp nurses that will allow both Providence Portland and Seaside to remain open.

Nurses plan to walk a picket line at each of the hospitals — 24 hours a day at Providence Portland — and at the Portland office of Providence’s home health operation.

The hospital alerted patients of canceled surgeries ahead of the five-day strike and reported that walk-in treatments and appointments not previously canceled were going smoothly Monday as it got underway.

The hospital said that replacement nurses from across the country had been called in for the duration of the strike.

Striking nurses with picket signs outside Providence Portland Medical Center waved thanks and cheered drivers honking in solidarity as they drove by. Rain began falling on the nurses at about 12:30 p.m.

Hospice nurse Lori Curtis of Portland was in the rain outside Providence Home Health and Hospice office on Northeast Halsey Street Monday afternoon with other striking nurses.

Replacement nurses have been hired for five days to manage the care of Providence Home Health’s average of 2,300 patients a day at their residence, and Providence Hospice’s average of 420 patients a day, according to Providence.

“People are dying without the care of the nurses they know,” said Curtis, who has 14 patients. “Time is crucial.”

Curtis is also active in bargaining as the chair of the Professional Nursing Care Committee.