Legacy Merger "Townhall" Response
A Meeting took place today on 6/12 led by Dr. Jacobs and the executive team to discuss the merger with Legacy Health. While some insights were given into a few of the next steps forward from a business and government side, nothing was given to what this will look like for the employees and workforce of OHSU.
No real answers given to important questions such as “How can we afford this with layoffs and benefit cuts happening?” or “Will this cause more layoffs to take place?”. Instead we were told that OHSU is trying to form “the workforce Oregon needs”, and that this will bring “generational change”.
Dr. Jacobs and the executive team, we are stunned on how you can say this when you already have the workforce Oregon needs. Your employees do not need you to spend over a Billion dollars to buy another hospital to continue to provide amazing patient care, they need you to fund their benefits. They need you to hire enough nurses and CNA’s so they can effectively treat patients. They need you to give proper raises instead of offering 0% for five years. You have the workforce Oregon needs already and you are currently laying them off.
OHSU executive team hopes for “Generational Change” but they don’t realize they already have this too. The strength in solidarity we see with our Union siblings. Workers coming together to demand respect, pay, benefits, rights, and equal treatment? That is true generational change. Researchers and Postdoc workers chanting in the Physicians Pavilion for better wages, Nurses and CNA’s fighting for laws to force better staffing and better safety, thousands signing a petition in an attempt to stop you from cutting our benefits. That is true generational change.
What Oregon needs is for there hospital workforce to be supported by OHSU and executive leadership. If they cannot on their own, the Union stands ready in solidarity to fight tooth and nail for what our members truly need, what Unions and labor and workforces have always needed: not a 18 million dollar building or a merger with another hospital, but pay, respect, and benefits.