Putting Our Words Into Action
Amid the stories of Black excellence that inspire us and the remembrances that humble and educate us this Black History Month, it can be easy to get caught up in what’s happening in the moment and what still needs to be done. Our union wants to take a moment to acknowledge the work we’ve done over the last year and the plans that are in the works.
Advanced Steward Training
In 2019, the following new language was added to our contract, giving our represented employees another option for reporting concerns and giving our union the opportunity to rise to the opportunity to better understand the needs of its marginalized members:
6.1.3 Complaints of discrimination or harassment. Employees are encouraged to file all complaints alleging discrimination or harassment of a protected status as identified above with the Employer through its Affirmative Action Equal Opportunity (AAEO) Department. Alternatively, employees may file a complaint with the Union, Integrity Department, the Human Resources Department, the employee’s manager, or the appropriate state or federal agency for resolution. If filed with the AAEO Department, the complaint shall be processed under the Employer’s rules pertaining to discrimination complaints. If the complaint is not satisfactorily resolved by the AAEO Department’s process, it may be submitted to the appropriate state or federal agency for resolution.
While Local 328 had stewards who were interested in this work and had an abundance of empathy and passion, we didn’t have a formal training program that would prepare them for these complicated cases. These aren’t standard grievances, where we can point to a contract article and make an argument that it wasn’t followed. Harassment and discrimination can often be masked by a professional veneer that any BIPOC individual knows all too well. Very few of the cases we’ve seen would have seemed egregious to an untrained or uncritical eye, but racism, sexism and other bigotry are systemic and often subtle, leaving a lot of room for plausible deniability.
OHSU has done some work to protect its employees from sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia and other forms of bias or hate. These are all explicitly forbidden in OHSU’s Code of Conduct, but problems like racism have deep roots in Oregon and in our broader society. OHSU’s recent commitment to becoming an anti-racist institution may pay dividends, but our union can’t wait to see how that plays out when our members are facing these issues right now.
Last year, under the guidance of Jesse Miller, Local 328 trained a select group of stewards on how to more easily identify harassment and discrimination, how to respond to affected employees in a trauma-informed way, how to elevate those cases outside of OHSU if necessary and how to care for themselves when hearing stories that could take an emotional toll. This training will be expanded over the next year: more stewards will be trained and we will eventually bring the individual lessons to all of our stewards.
If you’re interested in becoming a steward, contact our Chief Steward, Haley Wolford Davis at chiefsteward@local328.org.
Diversity, Equity & Inclusion Committee
Local 328’s new diversity, equity and inclusion committee, is a long overdue effort by our union to address issues of systemic discrimination following the highlighting of those issues in a tumultuous 2020. Under the guidance of TJ Acena, our DEI committee was been formed to analyze and address these issues. In the short time since its creation, the committee has already accomplished some of its early goals and has plans for many more.
Recent successes include specialty training for union stewards on issues of racial discrimination, the implementation of required training for AFSCME Local 328 executive board, and the pending creation of a new executive board position for diversity, equity & inclusion.
Looking forward, the committee is planning on further updating union policies to better combat issues of systemic discrimination, advocate for changes to upcoming contract negotiations to solidify responsibilities for addressing these issues, coordination of training and education for a wide variety of roles and responsibilities within the membership, and creating new partnerships with community organizations and established employee groups.
The DEI committee is always looking for new members to participate. If you’d like to get involved, please contact TJ Acena at diversity@local328.org.
BERG Outreach
We’ve also made strides in allying more closely with OHSU’s Black Employee Resource Group . For more information on how that has manifested, read this excellent article by Local 328’s Treasurer, Claire Irvan. If you’d like to know more about BERG, see their Bridge site.