For Bread and Roses on this Mayday
On this May 1st, Mayday, I would like to take a moment to reflect a bit on the past history of Unions and discuss a few of the issues taking place recently at OHSU as well as a call to everyone to work towards a better future together.
In 1912 textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts took to the streets in a 3 month long strike. In this strike the workers marched and chanted, demanding two things before they would return to work: Bread and Roses. The strikers demanded Bread; a fair and equal wage to provide for themselves and their family, and Roses; the right to dignified working conditions and fair treatment. For 3 months in a freezing Boston winter their Union organized more than twenty thousand workers of all backgrounds, survived beatings and abuse, militiamen threats with bayonets, and three deaths at the hands of police.
110 years later I am still inspired by their brave struggle, and yet it feels as if for every two steps forward for workers rights and equal treatment, we see 1 step back. On Friday, April 26th a federal judge awarded Dr. Rupa Bala over 4 million dollars along with punitive damages against OHSU. She was found to have suffered gender based discrimination in 2015 through 2017 and was found to have been treated unfairly when she raised concerns over suboptimal patient care. Dr. Rupa Bala did not fit exactly into what the department imagined a woman in medicine should be, and so she was punished by OHSU. Limitations to her clinical privileges, forced to resign, and bad references to hamper her future job prospects. The response to the case from OHSU was that they had spent “an incredible amount of time and effort changing our university’s culture for the better so we can best serve the people who rely on us for world-class patient care, research and education” and it is true that this did happen 9 years ago, before the scathing Covington Report and leadership commitments to equality, but yet for every 2 steps forward.
On Monday, April 29th Dr. Jacobs sent a campus wide email with a copy of the review Scott Schneider performed on the OHSU response to an incident that took place between Dr. Marks and School of Medicine students in November of 2022. I encourage everyone to read it, as in the report Mr. Schneider outlines and documents the herculean struggle of a brave and determined medical student fighting tooth and nail to report a faculty member for taking inappropriate photos of other women in class. Even with photographic evidence of the event taking place; the level and quantity of systemic failures from OHSU’s AAEO, OCIC, and top leadership lead to Dr. Marks having received a 46,000 bonus as opposed to any administrative leave, and the chance to resign. For anyone wondering, that's over 15,000 loaves of Franz bread, or 2000 bouquets of roses.
My heart breaks for Dr. Rupa Bala, who was denied her roses merely for being a strong and assertive woman who cared for her patients. It breaks for Student 1 who time and again sent emails to faculty and AAEO hoping, begging, and pleading for help as they rightly felt unsafe in their program. It breaks when I hear talk of OHSU slashing all healthcare benefits and outright denying any change to them that could improve the lives of those that work here. Most of all it breaks when instead of the promised changes for the better all I see are veiled threats of workforce reduction, calling on leaders to ignore noise instead of implement change, and a lack of our leaders' ownership for the failures that have taken place.
110 years ago the call went out for Bread and Roses, and today I place the call again. Everyone at OHSU deserves equal treatment regardless of gender, they deserve the dignity of feeling safe in their classroom, they deserve a fair wage, and they deserve benefits and pay to keep themselves and their family healthy. In this next year AFSCME Local 328 and all Union members in it will begin to bargain for a new contract but we need your support starting now. Sign up to join our Union, canvass, volunteer, discuss wages, become a steward, join our rallies, and if the worst should come to pass, strike with us. Let OHSU know that our Union is stronger together, and that we will fight just as hard as the Unions in the past have until we are given what everyone deserves; Fair pay and equal treatment, along with dignity and respect in our workplace.
OHSU helped to save my wife’s life and for that I will forever be grateful, and while I truly believe this is an amazing hospital that does so much good I also believe that together we can make it even better, and everyone can have there Bread and Roses.
Here are some links for more information:
Independent Investigator Slams OHSU’s Handling of Sexual Harassment Complaints