Bargaining Update: June 21
Member Participation Is Imperative to Move OHSU at the Bargaining Table: While the parties are getting closer to agreement on many outstanding proposals, we remain very far apart on key economic proposals. In order to get OHSU to move toward our union’s positions, it’s imperative that our members turn out in force to these upcoming actions:
Green Out the Board: Join us at the lower tram terminal at 12:45 p.m. on Friday to attend the meeting of the OHSU board of directors. The employer’s budget for fiscal year 2023 will be presented at this meeting. Help us remind OHSU’s leaders that a budget is a moral document. Register here.
June 30 “Invest in Us” Rally: Our bargaining rally is only nine days away! This rally will be the best tool we have, short of a strike, to show OHSU our strength and make our voices heard. It couldn’t be clearer after today: a large turnout is essential to show OHSU that our members stand together and that it’s time for the employer to make a real and lasting investment in us. Details and RSVP info can be found here. Please share the flyer with your coworkers and help us get a great turnout!
Today’s Session: Our teams worked with the state mediator again today. We won’t be meeting with the mediator next week, so will spend time working in subcommittees to try to resolve a number of outstanding proposals, including telework and the task force on workplace mental-health support. Our union’s team will also strategize regarding our next counterproposals.
OHSU Counterproposals: In the morning, OHSU presented a mediation-proposal package consisting of its economic counters, including:
8.1 Across-the-Board Increases: OHSU increased its offer to 3.5% for the first year of the contract and 3% for each of the next two years.
8.4 Market-Based Adjustments: OHSU agreed that employees receiving upward adjustments would retain their original anniversary date and agreed to increase the size of the market-based wage committee.
10.5 Lead Work: OHSU proposed increasing the minimum lead-work differential to $1.25/hour. (Local 328 had proposed increasing it to $1.75/hour.)
In this mediation proposal, OHSU continued to reject a number of our earlier proposals. A summary of the mediation proposal can be found here. (Highlighted items are those that have changed from OHSU’s previous proposals.)
OHSU made additional counterproposals (which can be viewed here) in the afternoon, including:
14.2.7 Catastrophic Event/Emergency Leave: OHSU made some minor tweaks and agreed to our language that use of approved emergency leave would not be subject to discipline.
14.1.7 Pre-retirement Counseling: OHSU added specifics re: retirement eligibility for UPP and the various PERS tiers.
Article 2 Package: OHSU made movement in a number of areas in this important article; we have just a couple of issues left to agree on.
Tentative Agreements: The teams reached agreement on several more sections of the contract: 2.9.4 Access to OHSU Intranet Pages (withdrawn), 5.UX12 Remote Work, 21.2.1 Implementation of New/Revised Classifications, 22.5 Education Expense Reimbursement and voluntary waivers. Additional information can be found in last week’s update.
Local 328 Counterproposals: Our team made the following counterproposals:
7.6 Meal Periods: We’ve agreed to add some clarifying language here, stating that employees must notify the person in charge as soon as they realize they may miss a meal or rest break, that they will not be retaliated against for doing so and that they will be paid if they do miss a meal break.
MOU #EX1 Pandemic/State of Emergency Bargaining: We continue to reject this proposal, which would reopen our contract for interim bargaining.
Call-Back Package: We updated our 9.2 Call Back proposal and rejected the two department-specific letters of agreement that OHSU presented earlier in bargaining. We incorporated some of the LOA language (such as “supplemental call plus”) into our call-back proposal; our intent is that our 9.2 language would eliminate the need for the LOAs. The package can be viewed here.
6.13 Contracting Out for Services: We proposed adding language to reduce OHSU’s use of travelers.
9.1.2 Overtime Compensation: We reduced our proposal for premium pay for mandatory overtime from triple time to double time.
9.1.4 Scheduling and Assigning of Overtime: We re-presented some of our original changes, but made movement elsewhere, including proposing capping mandatory overtime at 36 hours per quarter. (The current cap is 60 hours.)
10.UX7 Additional Need Incentive: We represented our original proposal, for 70% ANI.
21 Reorganizations and Classification Changes: We’ve made movement here, but continue to press for improvements to the language addressing upward reclassifications.