2/19 Bargaining Update and Stream Post Mortem
Hello Union Siblings!
Three different topics were the highlight of the bargaining session that took place yesterday, along with some updates on the streaming that took place.
Tentative agreements or TA’s have been reached regarding how our union and members can use the campus mail and OHSU email allowing members and our union to communicate easier and help to keep us all informed of what is happening.
The second discussion point was around Remote and Hybrid workers and the paths available for OHSU to force them to return to office. OHSU is looking to make it as easy as possible to implement return to work mandates while our bargaining team is pushing to make sure there are proper timelines along with business justifications on why a worker would need to required to return to office.
The final point was regarding workplace safety and having proper safety provisions in place for all of our members. Understaffing and cutting corners with regards to safety can lead to injuries on the workplace, so the bargaining team is pushing hard to get protections in place to keep our members safe and healthy in the workplace.
For yesterdays stream; sometimes its best to call it what it is in that it did not go as planned. Unexpected hardware changes at the location caused some technical issues and while staff and the team did there best, expecting the bargaining team to also handle the technical aspects of something this complex while also handling the duties of bargaining is unreasonable. To that end the union is looking at solutions to the issue which could include having a dedicated technician on site to handle the streaming services that would leave the bargaining team to do the work they need to do without having to worry about it.
Two questions from yesterdays stream that came up most common were: The timing of bargaining vs caucus and will there be recordings available. The easier of those tow to answer is the recordings: Yes we will be uploading recordings of all sessions so those that cannot watch live due to work or those on the night or swing shifts can still watch if they so wish. They will all be uploaded to our Youtube channel and available to all our members.
The second questions is much harder to answer and so we would ask you all as our members what you would prefer. The times during the day where discussions are had with the OHSU team is not set in stone and changes every week and can even change during the day of depending on discussions. We have a few options on how to approach this, we can leave the stream running the entire time during the day and give our best estimated times for discussions. We could also leave the stream off and only enable during the specific discussions that can be streamed knowing that if a discussion was missed by a member that the recording would be available. What approach would best benefit you, our members, to make sure you can have insight and be involved in this process?
We apologize that yesterdays stream had so many issues, no matter how much preparation you do there is always the chance of something going wrong you did not prepare for. Something this complex and unprecedented in our unions history takes time and practice to get working to the level that we want to provide to you all, and we truly appreciate your patience and grace as we continue to iterate through this process. If you have additional questions, comments, or concerns as we navigate this process, please feel free to reach out directly to communications@local328.org
For Bread and Roses,
-Sean Bovett, ICC Chair