Pay Progression – Members Speak Out!

We’ve selected the top blog comments from last week. (We’ve removed identifying information.)The top three comments of each week will receive a prize package from AFSCME Local 328. Keep commenting and see if your comment makes the cut next week!Top Three

What is OHSU’s “quit rate”? I have watched many people jump from job to job in OHSU or leave OHSU altogether because you will get more money changing positions, even doing the same job, than you will staying in your position.

My job takes one year to learn and two to three years to master, even starting with a strong skill set. The duties are cyclical, following the academic year, and there are many high-level tasks that only happen once a year. I have stayed in my position and become a master, but I certainly haven’t stayed for the money. I cannot imagine it taking 17 years to reach the top of my pay scale, instead of ten. When you already have five years in a job, staying 12 more to max out seems ridiculous, where five is reasonable. There is absolutely no reason to stay that long when you can change jobs and make more money, and having mastered my position I can try to advance to a better job title. That leaves my program spending half the longevity of each person who holds this role training them.

I entered my career believing that you should stay with an employer as long as you can because they will take care of you. Well, I am about to get my ten-year pin and I am not feeling appreciated at all. I am told I make too much -- last year my pay rate was adjusted DOWN to make a scale look aligned with a state average, and now I am being told that it will take longer to reach the maximum pay rate, a rate that is LOWER than it is now, to align with another average.

This is not right. This is not good for employees. This does not encourage longevity. This is not something we should meet halfway on; the answer is NO, we will not accept 9.25% over 17 years instead of 12.5% over 10 years.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve never striven to be “average.” I have always wanted to be extraordinary and have been praised by managers for being exceptional. Not average.

  • The certificate that came with my anniversary award is signed by Dr. Joe Robertson. It says “We fervently believe that Oregon Health and Science University is only as strong as the commitment that we receive each and every day from dedicated associates like you.”

Whatever.

OHSU speaks one set of values of its employees and acts with a totally different set of values. Obviously they see us as a tremendously negative financial burden to them. Talent, dedication and commitment to excellence do not seem to be part of their equation. As they continue to cut into our benefits and pay they eventually will end up getting what they seem to be aiming for -- mediocrity.

We deserve much better than what OHSU proposes and we should all be ready to hold the line. Let’s support the bargaining team in rejecting OHSU’s shortsighted and self-defeating proposals and help OHSU save them from themselves.

  • As an employee with more than ten years at OHSU, I have to say that I find this proposal demoralizing and somewhat offensive. I am happy in my job and with the management in my work unit, but the overall OHSU management is just greedy and deceitful. They keep making it harder and harder to justify staying here. I sort of think this is the goal. As anyone who has been at OHSU very long knows, there are A LOT of people who work here for decades, and this proposal would deal a huge blow to these people, perhaps even enough to get many of us to leave. Then they can hire a bunch of newbies at a fraction of the cost. Never mind the fact that they are screwing over the people who helped build OHSU over the last decade or two. Do not accept this proposal under any circumstances! It undermines so much of what the union has fought for over the years. This is huge, and we need to fight it!

Honorable Mention

  • I have to say, I was hoping to make OHSU my work-home for the rest of my career, in one form or another.

But with every subsequent bargaining session, I feel less and less valued and more ready to start finding work elsewhere. It’s obvious to me that OHSU doesn’t value its employees as much it does the bottom line. It makes me sad, and angry.

  • Pharmacists at this institution are expected to perform as leaders in excellence, as we should be, but compensated at maybe the middle of the pack? A pack that I believe to be cherry picked for the lower end of average? What are they thinking?

Are managers taking any cuts? Are we looking at whether they need to take pay cuts and retirement benefit decreases? Shoot, do we even look at other institutions number of managers? We are overflowing with them and the leadership of our department is terrible.

Why would they think that decreasing pay and benefits would make us want to work harder? How can this attract new skilled employees in any field, let alone one that is a huge part of the safety of this hospital? How can we be expected to continually increase the amount of work required with fewer resources, and now with less pay?

No chance any of these questions will be honestly answered. I’d strike if it comes down to that.

  • I love my job at OHSU. I do not want to have to imagine myself working for a new employer. Once again we are hearing about “industry standards.” What industry? Where?

Each day I am required to produce excellent high quality work in an ever changing and challenging environment and I feel that I continue to rise to the occasion. I am disappointed to be asked to be compensated at a standard rate and asked to produce excellent work.

This new proposal is laughable. Do not accept this cut in pay!

  • OHSU leaders seem to have spent a lot of time and effort finding complex and misleading ways to state that they want to pay their employees less money. If, at every contract negotiation, OHSU wishes to lessen pay and benefits for employees, I am not sure why anyone would ever wish to do excellent quality work here. Seems like market-standard work would be good enough for OHSU.
  • Proposals like this impact every individual in the department. Our department continues to lose skilled, long-term employees who “max out” of pay increases yet are continually asked to take on more and more responsibilities. The onboarding process at OHSU is steep and requires a lot of time, money AND commitment from the rest of the team to cover work until the new person is able to work independently. A plan that does not incentivize the individuals that are highly skilled, effective and well established in their positions is shortsighted and will cost more money in the end. Patients will notice, co-workers will feel stressed, departments will be less efficient and management will have to commit more time/money to training if we do not, as an institution, value our long-term employees.

I rate my job satisfaction on being challenged by my work, on the people I work for and with and on whether I feel valued by the people I work for and with. This is not just an AFSCME issue; this is an issue for all OHSU.

Bargaining 2015Frank Vehafric24 Comments