The Workforce Oregon Needs
The meeting today with Dr. Jacobs brought very little new information, which is hardly surprising. Instead we were given double-speak, vague terms, and empty platitudes that can best be summed up with Dr. Jacobs saying that OHSU is trying to form “the workforce Oregon needs” but he never said a single word about working with OHSU or Legacy’s unions to do it.
They continue to be clear about their desire to ignore our requests and demands. They want to do what they want to do and whenever we remind them of our power, Jacobs complains about the “labor-demic” and hides behind promises of future “clarity.”
The specific call outs stating that this merger would help with access to pediatric care and research studies while also announcing cuts in those departments is the kind of “clarity” we’ve come to expect, sadly.
If you need further proof that these layoffs are a choice, Dr. Selden talked about how the needs in Oregon are “great and increasing.”
Dr. Jacobs even talked about possibly utilizing “AI” to provide services for our patients, which shows a shocking ignorance about both the accuracy of these Language Learning Models and the importance of human contact in healthcare. There is no replacement for empathy. There is no predictive text that can share a patient’s experiences and help them feel heard and cared for.
Workers know what workers need. Our members see what their communities face every day. We work with these patients that they talk about increasing access for. We see how they struggle to get the care they need because we spend our days helping them get it.
Whether Dr. Jacobs and leadership wants to work with us on this “workforce Oregon needs” or not, we’ll be bargaining a new contract with them next year. They can keep double-clicking and quadruple-clicking each others empty statements, but we’ll be ready at the table and the picket line in 2025.
We’re already the workforce Oregon needs. We just need an employer who respects and supports us as we provide the services our communities deserve.
Nominations for our next bargaining team open Monday, June 17th at 8 AM and close Sunday, June 23rd at 5 PM.