What Gives?

So here you are — reading the blog updates, doing your best to follow the back and forth of bargaining, trying to decipher the nuances of proposals and straining to catch all the details of the contract language. It’s a lot, on top of a couple of years that have been a lot and an employer that expects you to continue giving a lot. Thank you for remaining engaged, sincerely. Since you’ve been staying up-to-date, some of you may have noticed (and a few of you have commented on) the fact that our union’s bargaining team seems to have given on some of our initial asks and OHSU doesn’t seem to be giving on much of anything. You’re not wrong. I want to tell you more about why that is.

All negotiations start out with our union at the table asking for more for our members. OHSU doesn’t come to the table with proposals to pay us more money, provide us more robust benefits, help us better care for our families or improve our work-life balance. OHSU will never approach bargaining that way because that simply isn’t how it works — the employer would be bargaining against itself. It is our union that make these asks in the first place. Ultimately, the nature of bargaining is for Local 328 to move down from our position and for OHSU to move up. Some movement on the part of both parties is a normal and expected part of bargaining, but our goal is always to get a better contract than the previous one.

At the outset of negotiations, our bargaining team asked for the moon with our initial proposals. We made some big financial asks and many smaller ones, but also made some that don’t have any economic impact on OHSU at all. Our hope was that management would pick and choose from the many options we gave them and bargain a fair contract that recognizes current economic realities and a work environment that’s miserable for many of us. We understood that we wouldn’t end up where we started, but the goal was to get us as close to the moon as possible. However, it feels like OHSU thinks we won’t settle for anything less than the moon, the sun, the stars and even a few outlying planets.

We know what our members deserve, and we know what your priorities are. Our goal at the table is to get a contract that reflects those priorities as much as possible. However, we do have to give on some of our proposals in order to move toward a settlement (both teams should be doing this), and we’ve intended to do so from the outset. All that being said, we understand why it might be alarming to see our team making movement that doesn’t seem to be reciprocated by OHSU’s team, and we share your frustration with how slowly management seems to be responding. We ask that you trust that the movement we’re making now is part of our overall bargaining strategy, as is the fact that we’re still at the table.

I won’t lie — being on our union’s bargaining team is a challenging position to be in right now. How do we show the necessary movement without compromising on the major issues? What proposals will be of the biggest benefit to the broadest range of represented employees? What matters the most to our members? And the truest test: what are we willing to strike over? You may be wondering if members can be part of how our team makes these decisions on where to give, how to narrow our focus and when and if to step away from the table. You can absolutely be involved! Keep showing up to our rallies and other actions, keep taking our surveys, keep giving your feedback during our virtual forums and keep commenting on the blog. Keep going!! Your action and involvement tell us — and OHSU — which of the proposals currently on the table are the most important to you. Our union will never lose sight of what we all deserve, but now is the time to ask ourselves which issues ignite the fire necessary to fight? Where does the give end and the picket line form?