The largest health care strike in Oregon history began early Friday at Providence across the state, as roughly 5,000 frontline health professionals walked off the job. The strike — which includes mostly nurses and 150 doctors and advanced practitioners in addition to thousands of nurses — spans Providence’s eight hospitals in the state.

Nearly 5,000 healthcare workers from Providence Health began a strike Friday morning, picketing all eight Providence hospitals in Oregon, after months of contract negotiations between the health system and the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) union, which is representing the workers.

Thousands of Providence health care workers are striking this morning in the largest health care strike in Oregon history. Here's why.