Bargaining Update 5/9/23

This week:

  • OHSU counters our wage proposal with a 4% raise in the first year, 2% in each subsequent year

  • OHSU rejects child care proposal

  • OHSU rejects insurance proposal; prefers status quo

  • OHSU agrees to Juneteenth holiday

  • OHSU agrees to language that prevents GRs from being required to take PTO if no work is available

  • GRU proposes article with option to work remotely and subsidy for remote work equipment

  • Management: “Portland is an affordable city”

Hello Graduate Researchers!

Thank you all so much for coming to our in-person bargaining session yesterday. We had a great turnout and it was wonderful to see so many engaged GRs. Unfortunately, it seems like OHSU management didn’t get the memo that GRs want to make a reasonable wage, as they counter-proposed a 4% raise in the first year, and 2% raises in subsequent years. As our current contract provides 3% raises each year and along with factoring for inflation, this would be a smaller increase than what we have currently.

Management also rejected pay equity between the School of Medicine, School of Nursing, and School of Public health, claiming that “the work is not equitable, so there is no issue of pay equity.” Another interesting claim OHSU management made is that no cost of living adjustments are necessary for GRs because “Portland is an affordable city.” OHSU also rejected our childcare proposal saying that they “recognize this is a concern, but it is beyond the capacity of the university to address.” However, they say we do get a 10% discount at KinderCare (we called them – the cost for a 3 year old for 5 days a week is $1422; discount already applied). OHSU also rejected our proposed healthcare plan, saying that the current student health plan “is actually better than the employee plan.” We're going to be looking at their comparison info behind that claim.

We did get some wins in our PTO proposal, as OHSU agreed to provide Juneteenth as a floating holiday, and agreed that GRs should not be forced to take PTO if they do not have any work to do. In trying to gauge the bargaining unit’s priorities, we have included a survey where you can tell us if you would prefer to have more PTO or the option to cash out your PTO. This will help inform our next move.

GRU proposed an article that provides the option for remote work following management’s previous rejection of our last language. The article includes a stipend for purchasing remote work equipment.

Again, thank you all for attending our in-person bargaining session and please remember that the best way to make gains is to show OHSU that we are an active unit working in solidarity and that we won't settle for less. We know that this has been a distressing message to read, but in the coming weeks we will be calling on members for extra action support in order to make clear to OHSU that we will #fightfor40 and more. Stay tuned!

If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to [email protected].

In solidarity,

Adrian Baris, Raphael Kirchgäßner, JD Russo, and Austin Wright