St. Charles and the Oregon Nurses Assoication reached agreement on a new three year contract last week following a marathon bargaining session.

The deal calls for two percent annual raises and continues with "charge nurses."   St. Charles wanted to do away with the position that offers mentoring help to less experienced nurses.  But the nurses felt doing away with charge nurses would hurt patient care.

Nurses at St. Charles negotiated for nearly five months before reaching a contract agreement.

The 600 service workers at St. Charles still don't have a contract after nearly a year of negotiations.

These workers are scheduled to vote on getting rid of the union on November 1st.