Bargaining Update for 4/22/2025
Today was our final day to pass new proposals to OHSU (and vice versa), so it’s another long list. Our most important proposals are quickly summarized below and then you’ll find more detailed summaries.
Quartile to Steps. OHSU proposed to move our pay scale from our confusing quartiles to a more legible and hopefully more equitable step system. This is something that we’re in alignment on as far as it being a necessary change.
Layoff. We expanded this language using all the lessons we learned in the latest round of layoffs. We’ve added everything from small tweaks to completely new recall language.
Employee Benefits Council. We have been coordinating with all of the other unions at OHSU to pass a joint proposal to restructure the EBC in a way that gives our unions more of a say over our healthcare benefits.
Trauma Intensive Roles. We have proposed additional well being leave for people who work in roles that experience excessive trauma in the workplace. We’ve also requested that any employee who has been through something traumatic at work would be able to request access to additional well being hours.
Steward Language. We want to expand the steward program with an eye towards our being able to automatically expand as we have gain more members.
Filling of temporary or limited duration vacancies. Before OHSU can hire travelers or agency contractors, they would need to first offer the temporary position to part time, relief, and flex employees.
AFSCME Proposals:
2 Union Provisions: There are both big and small updates to this important article.
2.2.1 Reasonable access. Clarified language around access for stewards. Currently, an employee can meet with an AFSCME staff member on paid time but OHSU believes this does not apply to stewards. We have corrected that.
2.3 Release TIme for Union Officers. We have requested additional time for our officers based on the size of our union and the possibility of us growing overnight should a Legacy merger occur. We are requesting that OHSU pay all officer hours rather than the current split between OHSU paid time and lost time paid by the union. We have removed the language that pro-rates officer hours by FTE from all positions. There isn’t 25% less work if you are a .75 FTE.
President: Change from 20 hours a week to full time. This is standard for union locals our size and is a long overdue change. The President will return to their original position when their term is complete.
Vice President: Change from 16 hours to 20 hours per week.
Secretary: Change from 5 to 10 hours per week.
Treasurer: Change from 5 to 10 hours per week.
Chief Steward: Change from 832 to 1040 hours annually.
Change from 1 to 5 Senior Lead Stewards, change from 11 to not fewer than 20 lead stewards with 2 additional leads per campus with greater than 500 employees. Change regular stewards to 1 per every 20 employees in the bargaining unit and generally cleaned up restrictions on what departments can and can not have stewards.
Steward hours would no longer have an overall cap. As our membership grows, this total of 3,800 steward hours has become more and more restrictive and unrealistic. With the pending merger, it makes less sense than ever.
Unit and representational stewards would be lumped together with a change from 20 to 50 hours. Lead stewards would go from 150 to 200 hours and senior leads would go from 200 to 250 hours.
Requests for additional steward time when someone exhausts their hours shall not be unreasonably denied and must be responded to within 7 calendar days.
Removed the need for stewards to track their hours. Kronos does this for us.
Removed geographic restrictions on steward activities. Many of our meetings are now virtual and there may be a greater need to travel if Legacy campuses become part of our territory.
Notification to the employer of a new steward training class would be moved from a minimum of 6 weeks notice to 4 weeks.
2.7 New Employee Orientation: Those of us who have been with OHSU long enough remember that hearing from the union was just part of the presentation during New Employment Orientation (NEO). WIth virtual NEO’s and the many decentralized processes, it’s difficult to engage with new employees. We have proposed that OHSU be required to have new employees attend a presentation from the union.
Simplified NEO language for clarity and requested that the time spent in NEO not count towards steward hours.
2.8 Bulletin Boards. Strengthened language regarding the use of bulletin boards.
2.9 Bargaining Unit Data. Included traveler and agency employees in the list our union can request of people employed at OHSU.
2.13 Union Leave. Increased lost time from a maximum of 90 days to 180. Increased the number of people our union can have on lost time from 5 to 7. Removed once every three year limit on being assigned lost time. Removed limit on how many times per year a member can take lost time to attend a conference or convention as an elected or mandated delegate.
2.13x Union Officer Leave. New language to ensure someone elected to state-wide or national union office would have protected time to execute the duties of their office.
2.X Additional Officers. New language that would grant new officers the same rights as those already defined in our contract. This isn’t something that could happen without an amendment to our union’s constitution, but our bargaining team saw this as one of the ways we could lay the groundwork for future expansion. Some unions have multiple Vice Presidents, for example.
5.12 Emergency Medical Leave: Changed to “shall be granted” and removed “at the Employer’s discretion.” Too many managers have abused this language.
5.X Intimidation of a Steward. A definition of what intimidation of a steward is for the purposes of Article 24 changes.
6.14 Performance Evaluations. We struck “other than that gathered immediately prior to the evaluation from colleagues.” All information should be weighed equally.
6.6.3 Failure to Reach Agreement: This applies to when extra work has been added and a review is needed. This puts the ultimate decision in the hands of a Labor Management Committee or, if there’s not one in that department, the Market-Based Wage Committee.
8.3 Merit-Based Adjustments: Added language giving power over whether to give a merit-based adjustment to an employee’s direct supervisor and the director (or equivalent) of their department. There have been too many cases where everyone directly involved with an employee’s chain of command thinks they deserve a raise, but someone with no knowledge of the day to day operations overrides the decision. We also added that management’s failure to respond within 7 business days would result in a raise of 5% being automatically approved.
8.4.1 Annual Review: This gives the Market-Based Wage Committee the ability to complete the reviews mentioned in 6.6.3.
10.3 Work from Home While on Call: We want the hours worked while on call, whether they’re in person or remote, to count towards the total hours worked in a day for purposes of double-back and excessive call. If you get a call at 2 AM and still have to report to work at 8 AM, whether you go into the office or fix the problem remotely, your rest was interrupted.
10.10 Work out of Classification: Changed the number of hours necessary to qualify for work out of class pay from 4 hours to 1 hour. Additional pay shall be a minimum of 5% up to the maximum of the rate of the higher classification’s range. In the absence of a supervisor, employees in the work unit who assume work out of classification that does not otherwise fall under lead work shall be entitled to this differential.
15.2 Insurance Contributions, 15.3 Insurance Coverage and EBC, Appendix C: This language defines how our benefits are determined and defended. This language exists in most of the labor contracts at OHSU and we worked with all of our union siblings across the organization to craft the updates. Research Workers United passed the same proposal last Thursday and OHSU has been informed that all of the other unions that participated will be sending the language in a Letter of Agreement or passing it at their bargaining tables.
This is the first time that we’ve coordinated with the other unions at OHSU in this way. We hope it will be a model for greater solidarity over the coming years.
Currently relief employees can only qualify for full-time benefits. We have updated the language so that they can also qualify for part-time benefits if they’re working between 520 and 779 hours during a six month period. This only applies to our contract and is what we believe was the spirit of the current language.
We have proposed that OHSU create a third insurance plan specifically for our remote employees who work outside of the area and can’t access medical services at OHSU.
Increase OHSU contribution from 88% to 95% for dependents.
Cut 15.2.3. Maximum annual contribution increase to address it in the Employee Benefits Council where there will be greater control over how increases are handled.
Cut 15.2.5 Employer premium reduction to address it in the Employee Benefits Council.
Local 328, Local 4820 (House Officers Union), Research Workers United, Local 723 (Postdoc Workers United), Advanced Practitioners United, and the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) worked together to restructure the Employee Benefits Council. Currently, it is made up of 4 representatives appointed by Local 328, 1 from Local 4820, 2 from ONA, and 7 appointed by the Employer. We have proposed the following:
One representative from each union local, one from the Faculty Senate, and one appointed by the President of OHSU and an additional representative per 2,000 represented employees with a maximum of 3 per group. This will give more power to larger groups without letting them overpower the rest of the EBC.
Remove the tie-breaking vote for the President. The current makeup of the board has allowed management to push through their agenda and led to the EBC having to choose the lesser evil far too many times.
Added mandatory coverage for domestic partners and the following categories to ensure that shifting political winds can’t impact the healthcare of our members and our families: Reproductive care, gender-affirming care, hormone replacement therapy, and GLP1 inhibitors and other efficacious weight-loss treatments.
Age-based restrictions on access to healthcare must be based on broad scientific consensus and medical best practice rather than political pressure.
No OHSU clinic can be closed to anyone covered under an OHSU healthcare benefits plan who would otherwise be eligible to access it. Any employee or covered family member who is turned away from an OHSU clinic shall be granted benefit level exception to another provider within one month.
Currently, the EBC isn’t given specifics on what their budget actually is. We are demanding that the EBC will be provided a budget by February 1st of each year that will cover the cost of maintaining the previous year’s plan coverage including maintaining co-pay, co-insurance, deductible, and out-of-pocket maximum levels, plus 2% for the EBC to use in expanding health care services coverage.
18.6 Filling of temporary or limited duration vacancies: New language that forces OHSU to offer temporary positions to part-time, relief, and flex employees before they hire a traveler. The employee would be paid a minimum of 10% higher than their regular pay and they would return to their original position when the assignment is complete. Paying us 10% more is still a steal when compared to the pay that travelers receive while also carrying all of the benefits of having an actual employee doing the work.
19 Layoff: Recognizing the instability that healthcare, science, and education are facing, it was important to our team to update our layoff language with all the lessons we learned last year. A summary of our proposed changes:
Added a preamble that states prior to any layoffs, OHSU will meet with the union to attempt to avoid them or minimize their impact.
19.1 Initial selection and notice of layoff. Change the assessment of special skills to be as of the employee’s last anniversary date because management abused this language during the last round of layoffs. We want to be sure people aren’t re-assessed at the last minute to limit their options.
19.1. Written notice of layoff. Changed from 15 to 30 days. Changed the notification to the union from 1 day to 48 hours with more information to the union and a guarantee that members be allowed to have a union representative present during the layoff meeting.
19.2 Temporary Employees, Travelers, Agency, and Contract Workers. Added Travelers and Agency to the list of people who must be laid off before regular employees. We also crossed out the language that exempts such workers who have time left on their contract.
19.4 Options of Employees Notified of Layoff. Small format change for clarity. We’ve added a recall list and added references to it here. Changed the timeframe for the employee to respond to HR from 7 days to 14 days.
19.5.2 Vacancy in executive organizational unit. Changed the title to “Vacancy outside of work unit” and removed the need for a position to be within the same executive organizational unit. There are many positions that exist within multiple EOU’s and an Administrative Assistant or Patient Access Specialist can move to another department very easily. We also explicitly called out that promotions would be on the table for an employee who is displaced.
19.5.3 Displacement of least senior employee in same classification. Added language that would allow OHSU to offer a vacant position outside of the employee’s work unit in lieu of placing them in a position that would be a demotion.
19.5.4 Displacement of least senior employee outside of the same classification. We made the same changes here as we did in 19.5.2.
19.6.1 Paid administrative leave. Crossed out “assigned work, at the Employer’s discretion” due to ways we’ve seen that language abused.
19.6.4 Geographic restrictions on placement. Added “unless the position is designated as a remote position.”
19.7 Employees Placed on Preferential Hire List. Added references to the recall language we proposed that will be summarized below. Expanded access to training.
19.7.1 Removal from list. Changed period from 18 months to 2 years.
19.9. Payment of Accrued Vacation and Compensatory Time. Deleted the language placing a maximum on paid vacation time upon termination.
19.X Recall. This is the big change. This is in addition to our rights under the Preferred Hire List. This is to ensure that if you do not accept another position within OHSU (in which case you have recall rights under 19.10 Right to Return to Previous Position) and your position or a position within the same classification is opened within 2 years of when you were laid off, you have the right to be rehired ahead of an outside candidate.
19.X.1 Recall order. Position will be offered to employees on the recall list in seniority order, then follow the language in 19.10.
19.X.2 Recall list. Establishes that you will be on the recall list for 2 years unless you’re removed based on language below in 19.X.5
19.X.3 Availability for recall. This allows an employee on the recall list to make themselves unavailable for two 14 day periods without being removed from the list. We also carve out temporary suspensions of availability based on medical, personal, childcare, or transportation-related emergencies.
19.X.4 Re-employment notification. When a position becomes available, OHSU will send a certified letter to the last address on file as well as an email to the last personal email on file. Employees will have 5 days to respond from the date the certified letter is delivered. They will then have 2 weeks to report to work.
19.X.5 Removal from recall list. Lays out the reasons and process for how someone would be removed from the recall list. The two reasons are reappointment to the classification they were laid off from and refusal of an appointment. Otherwise you’ll be on the list for 2 years.
19.X.6 Rate of pay upon re-employment. People will be re-appointed at their previous rate of pay plus across the board raises, maintain their original hire date, and have seniority points restored.
19.X.7 Recall for employees laid off due to automation. If your position is eliminated due to automation, you remain on the recall list for 3 years instead of 2. If OHSU has truly automated your position, that is a sad reality but with the push in the tech sector to automate work with questionable technology we want to be sure that if a change is made for short-sighted reasons, you have the opportunity to come back to OHSU.
24 Grievances and Arbitration: Another article we made both small tweaks and large changes to.
24.1 Grievance Procedure. Removed non-binding language about problem solving before a grievance can be filed. Made it explicit that deadlines can only be extended through mutual agreement.
24.1.1 Grievance Defined. Added the ability to grieve over violations of OHSU policy or the Code of Conduct.
24.1.2 Time extensions. If OHSU does not respond to the grievance before the deadline expires, the recommended remedy will automatically be approved.
24.1.3 Union representation. Explicitly states that the employer shall not meet with an employee about a grievance unless they have waived this right in writing.
24.1.4 Grievances of specific matters. Added “intimidation of a union steward” as a situation where we can start a grievance at Step 2 and changed the timeline for waiting for an investigation to happen from 90 to 21 days. Added language explicitly stating that OHSU must include information about how to remove a verbal or written warning from an employee’s file with their warning or coaching documents. Verbal warnings can be removed after one year and written warnings can be removed after two years.
24.1.5 Grievance steps. In step one, we’ve removed “or should have known” due to management’s frequent abuse of that language. Added policy, and/or section of the Code of Conduct as something we can grieve. Changed the timeline for requests for information from 7 to 21 days. Removed reference to a “problem solving worksheet” that no one uses. Added language stating that if the employer fails to respond within 7 days, the recommended remedy will be upheld.
In Step Two, we’ve changed all deadlines from 14 to 21 days for the sake of simplicity. Failure to respond to an RFI or grievance within 21 days without coordinating an extension will result in an automatic approval of the remedy.
In Step Three, we’ve removed the “should have known” language again and refined the language regarding who we contact to secure an arbitrator in an expedited arbitration.
24.2.1 Selection. Changed due date of an arbitration from 45 to 90 days and updated the same info about assigning an arbitrator.
24.4.6 Release Time. Made this language apply to all arbitrations for simplicity’s sake.
MOU X Social Work Council: This is a group that already exists to support our social workers with professional development, advocacy, and collaboration. This would formalize the Social Work Council and give them additional resources. These workers often become the default mental health providers for their fellow employees and patients. They need this support and it can only make OHSU a better and safer place to work.
MOU X Trauma Intensive Roles: We have proposed that people in roles that regularly expose them to traumatic events have access to additional well-being leave. This would automatically be available to any emergency response team and a group of job classifications we identified, but any employee would be able to request access to additional time when something traumatic happens at work. This would supply an additional 12 hours every 6 months (prorated by FTE). Additional well being leave based on experiencing a traumatic event would also be given in 12 hour increments.
MOU X Training Trust: A proposed collaboration to work with the United We Heal Training Trust to provide eligible current and prospective OHSU employees with training and education opportunities.
MOU 29 Advanced Certification Differential. This provides a process for establishing and maintaining advanced certification differentials. You may remember that this was language we won last contract. The committee was formed and made recommendations, but they were never implemented. We used those recommendations to make our proposal.
MOU X Certification and Licensure Renewal Program. This would allow employees who must maintain licenses and/or credentials up to $1500 reimbursement per year towards maintaining them. This would also provide up to $3500 reimbursement per year for travel costs for attending job-related conferences.
OHSU Proposals:
Appendix X. Step and Grade. This is the conversion of our pay scale from quartiles to steps. Management acknowledged that the current quartile system is unusual and confusing. Today’s proposal was meant to give us a framework to build our counter proposals on, so we’re not going to go too deeply into the details until we have our first pass at our own version.
We are in total agreement that the current system needs to be replaced with something that is more transparent and easier to navigate.
Below are some highlights:
The grid they showed us as an example was easier to read and took close to the same number of years to get from the bottom of the scale to the top as our current contract. Of course we’d like to see something better, but they started with something that is already a step forward. According to OHSU, it takes most employees 12.5 years to get from the bottom to the top of their pay scale with another 5 years to get your longevity raise. The truth is that few people qualify for the longevity raise due to the way that it’s currently administered. They proposed a 13 step system with a 5 year longevity period.
The longevity rate would be replaced with a yearly raise of 1% instead of the current 3% raise after 5 years that very few people qualify for. This is a better system that would both ensure that our members actually get their longevity raises and that would be multiplicative since 1% per year builds on itself. This also means that both teams have proposed that the longevity rate be raised to an effective 5%.
Their proposal to transition to this system would move everyone to the closest step that is higher than what they make. So every employee whose pay didn’t exactly correspond with a step in their pay grade (which should be nearly everyone) would see some form of raise. Additionally, employees who have been at the top of their range would be moved into the appropriate longevity rate rather than just beginning the longevity process.
They were explicit that the pay ranges would go up as the across the board wage increases are applied. So the floor of the lowest scale would be raised every year of the contract. The intention is to be sure that if you’re at step 4 on June 30th, you’ll still be on step 4 on July 1st when your across the board wage increase is applied (assuming July 1st isn’t your anniversary date). This will help be sure the scale remains easy to navigate and that the maximum of a pay grade increases as the floor raises.
They proposed language that makes it explicit that employees could and should be hired above the first step of their pay grade if they have experience.
Management wants to work with us to come up with a way to make this as easy to read as possible in the contract. Crossing out the quartile language would be confusing before the step system is instituted (they’re proposing July 1, 2026 as the effective date due to the complexity of the task), so they pitched the idea of republishing the contract next year but were open to other creative problem-solving.
Some things we found concerning:
OHSU proposed freezing the wages of anyone who is above the longevity rate for their pay grade until the steps catch up to them. They’re not sure this would apply to many people or even if anyone would be impacted, but we’re concerned about this concept.
They would like to restructure how flex employees are paid. They want to place them in the pay grade and step system based on their years of experience and then pay a 10% differential. We will need to research how this would impact our flex members and have no interest in seeing anyone’s wages going down or being frozen.
They would like to remove the language for merit-based adjustments entirely. Their argument is that the new system creates more transparency and makes it clearer where employees should be within their pay grade and cited concerns about pay equity.
Overall, this proposal is a step in the right direction (no pun intended). We’ll be working out the details over the coming months but this was a carefully constructed proposal that we can work with.
MOU X Legacy Reopener. OHSU passed a contract reopener that would bring us back to the bargaining table if there’s a Legacy merger. If we’re still in bargaining when and if the merger occurs, we’ll be able to go back and reopen some articles to alter them. This was based on the reopener in ONA’s contract.
This was a long day with a lot of very detailed proposals. Thank you for your patience waiting for the blog post to go up.
Now that we’ve finished passing new proposals, we’ll truly begin negotiating with OHSU. Expect shorter but more detailed posts as we become more focused on the individual counter-proposals.
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