Richmond Workers Demand OHSU Address Racial Discrimination at Clinic
For more than a year, workers at OHSU’s Richmond Clinic have been fighting against workplace racism, attempting to work with OHSU to right the ship; they have been met with delay, gaslighting and abuse. In early February, white managers sent out a culturally appropriative photo; when HR was informed, they didn’t see an issue.
Local 328 stands against racism in the workplace and stands with Richmond Clinic workers. On Wednesday, March 9, we held a solidarity rally to say “enough is enough” and tell OHSU that it’s well past time to hold managers accountable and take workers’ concerns seriously. Thank you so much to everyone who came to the rally to stand with the brave Richmond workers who came forward to share their stories!
We’re pleased to report that the rally received coverage in the local media — KATU and KPTV both ran stories from the event, and the Portland Mercury published a detailed article about the rally and what led up to it.
The Mercury reported that in March 2021, “an outside consultant found that the Richmond Clinic’s environment is ‘unhealthy, unpredictable and toxic.’” Clinic staff who were interviewed for the report weren’t provided a summary of the consultant’s report until seven months later. Given the findings of the Covington report, it should come as no surprise that the Richmond consultant also found issues such as biased hiring and racial microaggressions at the clinic.
As a result of the consultant’s findings, OHSU required Richmond managers to form a committee to change the culture at the clinic. It should also come as no surprise that clinic staff told the Mercury that “the committee has been largely ineffective because the same people who created the discriminatory workplace culture, as identified by the report, are being asked to champion a new culture.” Sound familiar?
Even after spending $6.5 million on the Covington investigation, however much was spent on the Richmond Clinic consultant and however many OHSU Now posts leadership makes stating otherwise, it seems clear that OHSU is unwilling to listen to the workers suffering under its culture of racism, harassment, bias and retaliation and is unwilling to make the necessary changes to right the ship.
After Local 328 began publicizing the solidarity rally, a post appeared on OHSU Now that our union feels downplayed the situation at the Richmond Clinic. We encourage you to read that post and then read the Mercury article filled with stories from the workers there, and then ponder how disconnected OHSU’s leadership appears to be from the reality of life at Richmond. OHSU Now’s post states that “there have been failures.” Indeed.
We’ll continue to pressure OHSU to do right by the Richmond workers — it can start by meeting their nine demands presented at the rally. Stay tuned for more communications about Richmond — in the meantime, please enjoy some photos from the rally and let us know your thoughts.
