Help Our Fellow Workers in OHSU Research

Members of 328,

I am Julien Carson, a research assistant at the Knight Cancer Institute and an organizing member of OHSU Research Workers United (RWU) and I am writing to ask for your support in demanding that OHSU cover the cost of recent pay increases for research workers to avoid layoffs. 

Like many of my peers, consistently low wages in research have left me feeling undervalued and overworked. While we are very happy to receive a much-needed wage increase, OHSU is requiring that it be paid through our pre-existing grants rather than from the OHSU budget, leading to reports of reduced hours and layoffs. 

Why do we need a wage increase? As many of you probably know, in 2022 the greater Portland area was named the 8th most expensive city to live comfortably in the United States, where an estimated $60K after taxes is required for a budget that allocates for “basic living expenses, discretionary spending, and saving or paying off debt.” That is $24K more than my 2022 salary before taxes. A fair cost of living adjustment is but one reason Research Workers United have been organizing our union in order to join established unions like Local 328.

Why are the current raises a problem? OHSU’s solution to a long-overdue pay raise was implemented without seeking meaningful input from ourselves or the faculty responsible for budgeting those increases into their grants. Generally, grants are fixed for 5 years and cover all direct research costs– including salaries. Now, I am hearing stories about how faculty are having to reduce hours or dole out layoffs to account for this pay bump when their grants cannot cover the increased overhead. Basically, some researchers are being laid off because they got a raise. I am lucky, I am in a lab with enough money in grants to sustain me and my coworkers. Others are not as fortunate, such as one of my fellow RWU organizers who writes “I am being laid off. It turns out that OHSU ‘found this money’ from current and renewed research grants and because of this, the grant that I was on could no longer afford to keep me, as it was written more than several years ago.” 

With this pay raise, OHSU just stacked another variable onto labs without any support. It has become increasingly obvious to me that OHSU has the money to remedy this problem, but it is just as clear that the university doesn’t appear to have the motivation. So we, as the people now feeling the heat of this, demand OHSU right their wrong and cover the cost of pay increases from their own budget to avoid layoffs, reduced hours, and a diminished scope of research that wasn’t accounted for by those doing the work or writing the grants. OHSU benefits financially from our discoveries and we bring prestige to OHSU's global brand. If OHSU wants to be a top tier research institution, we ask that they better support their workers. 

Please add your name and stand beside us. We demand OHSU not stand idly by while some lose their livelihood and career. Help us show OHSU that there is power in our solidarity.

You can add your name to our petition here.

Lastly, all of our campaign contact info is below. Please share this with any Researchers in your workplace and encourage them to get in touch and get involved!

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