What’s Happening After the Covington Report?
Background
In the spring of 2021, sexual harassment complaints were made against an OHSU resident known on social media as the “TikTok Doc.” Concerns about him were brought to several mandatory reporters at OHSU, but the allegations weren’t acted upon; there were rumors that his colleagues may have even helped him transfer into a different residency program in Florida. OHSU-wide outrage about this caught the media’s attention, ultimately pressuring OHSU to hire the firm of former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder to conduct an investigation to assess OHSU’s workplace environment regarding sexual harassment, racism, retaliation and reporting.
At that time, our unions were already pushing OHSU to address these areas of serious concern. Oregon AFSCME’s executive director Stacy Chamberlain and staff representative Valyria Lewis met with Dr. Danny Jacobs to discuss deep and ongoing issues of racism among OHSU’s HR team and managers. This conversation helped to expand the reach of the Covington investigation, so that racial disparities (particularly relating to coaching, discipline and terminations) were also looked at. The Covington report cost OHSU $6.5 million and ultimately backs up what our unions have been warning OHSU about for decades.
The report explained that the investigation’s five key findings were:
OHSU’s actions and communications re: DEI, misconduct and HR are not always aligned with its stated values.
OHSU hasn’t established clear DEI priorities, OHSU-wide strategies for change or effective policies around DEI issues.
OHSU’s policies and procedures re: misconduct and reporting are inconsistent, unclear and imprecise.
OHSU doesn’t have a consistent process to address and document concerns re: misconduct, leading to employee dissatisfaction and disciplinary decisions that can be uninformed or ineffectively implemented.
OHSU has historically devalued and marginalized HR, through its failure to provide the department with adequate resources, leadership or authority.
Our Unions’ Shared Priorities
In mid-February, all OHSU unions — AFSCME Local 328, Graduate Researchers United, House Officers Union, Oregon Nurses Association/AURN and Hillsboro Workers United — joined together to host a series of forums to show support and solidarity for workers across the campus in direct response to the findings of the Covington investigation. FAQs from the forums can be found here.
GRU represents graduate researchers at OHSU. One unique challenge GRU faces is that their members’ career advancement is entirely dependent on their supervisors. This can be problematic for researchers who don’t have a positive relationship with their supervisor, and it disincentivizes students from reporting problems. Furthermore, because OHSU doesn’t provide a clear definition of retaliation, it’s difficult to hold supervisors accountable. One of GRU’s main priorities while bargaining their first contract was to address training conditions; as a result, a task force was created and its recommendations have been sent to OHSU’s provost.
HOU, one of our newer unions, represents residents and fellows across different graduate medical-education programs at OHSU — an incredibly diverse group. HOU’s major goals for the upcoming year are to build an even stronger foundation, tackle burnout without hurting current programs and increase wages.
ONA/AURN represents nurses at OHSU, who share some of the problems we face at Local 328, with clear disparities in discipline, terminations and retaliation. Nurses rely heavily on teamwork, collaboration and strong communication, making it easier for managers to take advantage of them. If there’s conflict with a supervisor, nurses fear retaliation and bullying.
Our unions continue to meet regularly and communicate with each other about the Covington report and other matters that affect all of our members at OHSU. We are stronger together, and look forward to future collaboration.
Post-Investigation Committees
In response to the Covington report, OHSU has created two committees, an implementation committee and an oversight committee. The implementation committee, made up of 15 OHSU executives, is charged with “operationalizing” the recommendations of the report. Unlike previous OHSU committees, which reported back to the very administration with a history of acting in bad faith, the Covington oversight committee will report directly to OHSU’s board of directors. The oversight committee, made up of 37 members from across OHSU — students, unions, faculty, employee resource groups, managers and others — is charged with helping to review, evaluate and report on the work of the implementation committee.
All of our unions are committed to acting in solidarity on the implementation committee — we will make decisions on issues together and hold OHSU leadership accountable together. If these committees prove to be ineffective and merely performative, we are open to publicly walking away together if necessary. As of now, the plan is for the oversight committee to conduct an internal review of its purpose and function as a whole; from there we can assess whether this is worth our members’ time.
Local 328 Representation
Our union has two members on the Covington implementation committee:
Claire Irvan, Local 328 treasurer, was selected by our union as our representative for the committee
Theresia Lloyd-Siemer, Local 328 trustee, was selected by OHSU as an at-large member of the committee
Irvan attended the first meeting on Thursday, Feb. 10, where the committee set timelines and decided on ground rules. She reported that the committee is fairly diverse, with stakeholders from all across the institution. However, it lacks representation from employees in lower ranks. As a result, committee members must prioritize communication with those workers to ensure that our most vulnerable employees are included in these important conversations.
Historically, unions left diversity, equity and inclusion issues up to the employer, which has proven ineffective. Local 328 is committed to making DEI a priority in our decisions and actions. To that end, our union established our first DEI committee last year, thanks to the efforts of executive-board member TJ Acena. Acena currently serves as the chair of our DEI committee. To date he has organized an anti-oppression workshop for our board, trainings on sexual harassment and violence for our stewards and more. The DEI committee is also looking at how to include anti-discrimination language in our contract to better protect our members. Acena also holds periodic BIPOC office hours, where our members of color can come together to talk about their concerns in a safe space. Announcements about upcoming BIPOC office hours can be found on our blog, events calendar and Facebook page. For more information, email TJ at diversity@local328.org.