Our current contract expires in June 2023, therefore we have to start thinking about bargaining now! Please fill out our bargaining survey if you haven't already:  https://forms.gle/woceVN6Myz3ahzUC8 . This will help us determine what is a priority for you and what we should fight for in our next contract!  Formal bargaining will begin in January 2023, in hopes of reaching an agreement with OHSU by the time our current contract expires. Consider joining our MAT and/or bargaining team to become more involved in the bargaining process! Don't want to join yourself but you know someone that would want to? Encourage and nominate your peers for any of these positions! Just let us know and we'll be in touch!

MAT team: Ever wonder what your union is up to? The Membership Action Team (MAT) may be for you! Members of the MAT help to keep the bargaining unit (all graduate researchers) informed on union news, activities, and events. The MAT also collects feedback and reports this back to the Executive Board or Bargaining Team (union leadership). This helps promote communication between union leadership and the bargaining unit and will help keep the lines of communication open during the bargaining process. Time commitment includes bi-weekly meetings with union leadership, email communication with members of the bargaining unit, and answering questions from the bargaining unit. We are looking for about 20 union members from various programs to help us keep everyone informed! If you are interested, please email [email protected].

Bargaining Team: As you may have heard, our contract is up in June 2023 which means it is almost time to bargain the next contract! If you are passionate about  increasing stipends and other benefits for graduate researchers, then consider joining the Bargaining Team! This group of 4-6 graduate researchers will draft proposals for the new contract (with support from AFSCME and other union members) and negotiate directly with the OHSU bargaining team. This is a great chance to make a positive impact for current and future graduate students and to gain policy experience along the way! If this sounds interesting to you, please email [email protected].