ULP Mediation Today, No Settlement Reached
On Tuesday, October 1, attorneys and representatives from AFSCME Local 328, Graduate Researchers United, and OHSU met with a state mediator to attempt to mediate a settlement for our respective unfair labor practice complaints. After some back and forth exchange of proposed remedies via the mediator earlier in the day, Local 328 and GRU presented settlement proposals (see below) directly to OHSU in the mid-afternoon. Unfortunately, OHSU declined to agree to these terms for a settlement and did not present a counter-offer, ending the mediation session at 3:30 p.m. The ULP complaints will now proceed to a hearing with the Employment Relations Board. We will share updates on this process as they become available.
Local 328 Settlement Proposal:1. Make a public statement as follows:“OHSU admits that two members of its bargaining team (the VP of Human Resources and a financial consultant) engaged in social-media trolling and unlawful anti-union behavior that impeded the bargaining process and interfered with the rights of AFSCME Local 328’s bargaining-unit employees to engage in protected union activity. OHSU further acknowledges that these behaviors occurred because of a systemic anti-union bias in Human Resources and elsewhere in management. OHSU pledges to work with AFSCME in good faith to address these issues and to adhere to all recommendations arising from an independent investigation agreed upon in mediation with AFSCME Local 328 on October 1.”This statement will be emailed to every OHSU employee, posted on OHSU Now with comments turned on, and shared to OHSU’s Facebook page.
The verbiage of OHSU’s initial proposed apology/acknowledgement doesn’t differ significantly from the OHSU Now statements previously made by Dr. Jacobs, and thus is wholly inadequate as a remedy. We’re asking for this statement not to embarrass OHSU, but in the hopes that OHSU leadership will sincerely acknowledge that there has been systemic anti-union bias at OHSU and indicate a willingness to change this. If OHSU means it when they say they want to restore trust and rebuild a partnership with Local 328, this is the first step in doing so.
2. Engage Kathryn Dammell to conduct an independent investigation of the conduct of the OHSU bargaining team, Human Resources, and unlawful anti-union behavior at OHSU.
We already know what behavior the two specific members of the OHSU bargaining team engaged in to prompt our ULP complaint, and aren’t interested in a remedy that limits an investigation to just those parties. We feel there is a systemic anti-union bias at OHSU that needs to be investigated. Departments in which there have been issues include but are not limited to: Patient Transportation, Food & Nutrition, Respiratory Therapy, Physical Therapy, Child Life Therapy, Center for Women’s Health, School of Dentistry, and Occupational Health.
3. Pay $25,000 to Local 328 to reimburse our treasury for expenses incurred due to OHSU’s bad-faith bargaining.
We appreciate the offer to augment the hardship fund, but the expenses in question were incurred by our union, not by our membership. Our union’s treasury needs to be compensated for these expenses.
4. Sever the GRU ULP complaint from the Local 328 ULP complaint.
We are two separate bargaining units with different needs, and we don’t want a settlement with Local 328 to have a negative impact on GRU.
Any communication regarding any settlement made on October 1 will occur concurrently; i.e., OHSU will wait to make an announcement until Local 328 is also able to (per the requirement that we give HR a copy of our email communications 48 hours in advance of sending).
GRU Settlement Proposal:
OHSU acknowledges that during bargaining with Graduate Researchers United (GRU), the management bargaining team failed to bargain in good faith as required by law. OHSU apologizes for:
Repeatedly cancelling bargaining;
Adding temporary bargaining members even though this is expressly forbidden by the ground rules agreed to by both parties;
Delaying the bargaining process by refusing to counter GRU proposals in a timely fashion;
Countering GRU proposals with unmodified 328 language;
Backtracking without explanation on mutually-written language during IBB;
Consistently and incorrectly claiming that graduate researchers are not employees;
Repeatedly, flagrantly, and incorrectly claiming that the work graduate employees do for their dissertations does not constitute employment;
Falsely claiming that national law and policy, including that of the NIH and IRS, prohibits recognition of graduate researchers as employees;
Forming a team and allowing a culture to exist in which underhanded tactics thrived, as evidenced by Dan Forbes’s presence on the team;
Forming a team which is incapable of agreeing to articles at the table;
Disseminating false information about the bargaining team to their membership;
Disseminating a misleading FAQ to GRU members about the benefits of union membership and the process of bargaining;
Implying that the bargaining team does not represent their membership;
Promoting a misleading interpretation of the bargaining framework agreement.
In addition, OHSU affirms their commitment to making the following changes to the bargaining process moving forward:
OHSU will counter all outstanding proposals within 3 weeks;
OHSU will respond to new GRU counters within 2 weeks of receiving them;
OHSU will ensure that the bargaining team is capable of deciding on articles at the table;
OHSU recognizes that all research, training and work performed by graduate researchers is compensable work;
OHSU will meet with GRU to bargain every week.