Bargaining Update: July 27
OHSU Counterproposals: The management team proposed the following counterproposals today:
Flex-Staff Package: OHSU presented a counterproposal to our last flex-staff package. Movement was made and main issue remaining to be worked out relates to flex-staff availability.
Child-Care Package: OHSU rejected our child-care reimbursement proposal, instead proposing an MOU offering a $50,000/year child-care hardship fund, which would be administered by Local 328.
9.X Package: OHSU offered to withdraw its proposal to offer sign-on bonuses to new hires.
Article 27 Package: OHSU continues to reject our proposed exposure-testing language in 27.6 Work with Dangerous Materials, but made some movement in 27.7 Exposure to Serious Communicable Disease.
12.4.3 Submission and Granting of Vacation and Holiday Time Off Requests: OHSU agreed to our changes and added a small bit of clarifying language.
18.1.3 When Job Bid Is Unnecessary: OHSU withdrew its proposal, reverting to current contract language.
MOU re: Exit Interviews: OHSU continues to reject our request that exit-interview responses be shared with Local 328 (while giving employees the option to decline sharing this information). OHSU feels that even with the opt-out, this language may result in employees being less candid in their responses, but we’re not confident that OHSU will put the information to use. The reason our union initially proposed the exit-interview language was so that we could review the responses and look for patterns related to protected characteristics, specific departments or managers, staffing, etc., and push OHSU to address them.
AFSCME Counterproposals: Our union’s team proposed the following today:
DEI Package: Our union last presented our anti-discrimination/-harassment proposals to OHSU back on May 24, with no response to date. This language is too important to be ignored, so we re-proposed it all in a package that now also includes the Juneteenth and Indigenous Peoples Day floating holidays.
Staffing Package Supposal: We presented a large package supposal with language intended to improve staffing and aid in retention and recruitment. Since the package was presented to OHSU as a supposal, we’re not locked into the language in the package. Our supposal package addresses time off between shifts, on-call, overtime, ANI, Appendix A and more. (You may see more supposals, from both teams, being presented during this stage of bargaining.)
Clean-Up Time Package: Our proposed language allows employees to change out of clothes soiled with blood, chemicals, etc. on paid time during their shift, and offers paid time to change out of OHSU-provided work clothes at the end of a shift.
Preceptor Package: We continue to push for a simpler definition of preceptor, and have added a $5.00/hour cap to our proposed 10% differential. We’ve also modified which classifications will be eligible, focusing on clinical positions but offering employees in other classifications an option to request the differential if they do precepting work.
Wages Package: We presented a package addressing progression increases, longevity rate, market-based adjustments, recommendations to the market-based wage committee and OHSU’s proposed recognition bonus.
Previously Proposed TAs: We also presented a number of tentative agreements that we had previously informed OHSU we were willing to TA. The management team didn’t agree to the TAs at the time because the language was included in larger proposal packages, but we hope they may agree to TA some of the language now.
As always, PDFs of the proposed contract language can be found at the links above.
The teams will be in mediation again tomorrow.
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