Mediation Update for 12/2/2025
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Our bargaining team was at the SEIU building for more than 12 hours yesterday, making as much progress as was possible towards a tentative agreement. While we remain far apart on the major economic topics, a significant number of non-economic and smaller economic issues were resolved or are close to being wrapped up.
OHSU has agreed to our team having an extra work day next Monday so that we can make as much progress as possible during our next planned mediation on Tuesday. Additional sessions are being planned throughout December (possibly in addition to our regularly planned Tuesdays), if needed.
We posted the basics of OHSU’s economic “supposal” yesterday and they’re summarized below:
Year 1: Greater of 4% or $1.25 with a new minimum wage of $22 an hour.
Year 2: 3.25% with the minimum wage increasing by the ATB amount to $22.72
Year 3: 3% with the minimum wage increasing by the ATB amount to $23.40
$1500 ratification bonus for full-time employees and $750 for part-time if we do not declare a strike.
No additional vacation.
No additional sick time.
No additional holidays.
Our team shares your disappointment that OHSU did not come to the table with an offer that we could agree to. The silver lining is that there was a lot of language passed that resulted in tentative agreements or where we are very close to coming to an agreement.
With the work day next Monday, we’re confident that we’ll be able to clear all but the largest economic items next week. Whether we reach a tentative agreement or not will come down to what OHSU brings to the table.
After our successful strike vote last month and our sibling union, Research Workers United declaring impasse yesterday, we hope that OHSU appreciates what a serious position they’re in and comes back to both tables with offers that we will be happy to bring to our memberships.
Tentative Agreements:
Scheduling Package: This is all scheduling language throughout the contract that has been consolidated into one place for clarity.
Previously passed language that was finalized as formal TAs:
5.X Lead Work: Lead work better defined with a wider range of qualifying duties. This is in addition to a TA where the number of hours that are worked .
5.23 Preceptor.
9.2 Call Back.
10.2.1 Supplemental Call.
10.3 Work from Home While on Call.
10.5 Lead Work.
14.1.8 Paid bereavement leave: As previously discussed, increasing from 20 to 24 hours. Finalized TA’s.
14.2.4 Bereavement leave.
14.2.4.1 Denial of additional bereavement leave days.
15.1.2 Relief employees.
15.2 Insurance contributions.
15.2.1 Full-time employees.
15.2.2 Part-time employees.
Article 16 Retirement
Labor Management Committee (LMC) Funding: Article 28.4, MOU 8, MOU X Support for LMC
MOU 13 OHSU/AFSCME Workplace Mental Health Support
AFSCME Counters:
Layoff Package: Mostly agreed to in previous passes. Down to minor changes.
Clarified that a laid off employee can ask for a union representative or steward to be present during any meetings where they discuss their layoff options.
Again struck language that would allow OHSU to keep a temp or traveler if it is “prevented by an individual contract with such person.” Our contract is the only one we’re negotiating.
Clarified language regarding relief employee layoffs. If a relief position is eliminated under current contract language and that member is not the least senior employee in their department, two people could end up losing their jobs since the least senior FTE employee would be let go and then there’s the possibility the relief employee won’t want to accept a full time position.
19.6.1 Paid administrative leave: Clarified that any temporary placement must be “within the scope of their position description.”
Tweaked definitions of “qualified” and “well qualified” This makes placement via the Preferential Hire List less subjective.
Protected Leave Package: Nearly at an agreement on this language. Will provide much better protections for employees who are using sick time accruals as well as those who do not have accruals available but are unable to work.
5.3 Protected Medical/Sick Leave: Referenced the ill provider policy both to give a clear set of parameters when someone would be considered unable to work due to OHSU’s policies as well as making sure our members know where to look for this information. This is down to making sure we’re referencing the most appropriate document.
Changed reference to FMLA and OFLA to “state or federal leave” to better protect our out of state members and added that if someone is denied an accommodation they would be granted leave through our Extended Medical Leave language.
MOU X Automated Monitoring Implementation: Minor updates to place guardrails around when someone can have automated monitoring used in the disciplinary process (must be something that has already been addressed in coaching and the member must be notified that it may be used to monitor the specific performance issue that’s being addressed) and ensure that anyone whose role may be impacted by gradual “feature creep” is trained on the software once it’s appropriate.
Appendix A: MOU submitted with supposal for Appendix A where issues are agreed to only if the MOU is accepted and addresses the problems. The MOU is actually very simple as it takes the broad departments and classifications where we know there are issues (Pharmacy and ITG) and taking all of the changes we initially asked for within Appendix A and applying it to them. There are of course provisions for individuals to opt out as these problems do not affect everyone, even when we’re being more specific. We also added a provision to add departments facing similar issues with disagreements being mediated by the Employee Relations Board.
Appendix J Workplace harassment, discrimination, and violence:
Agreed to civil rights investigations deadline remaining 60 days as OHSU can not commit to a shorter timeframe. Added back language that will allow someone who is involved in an investigation that takes more than 60 days be given an accommodation or alternative work arrangement, if they wish.
Took another approach at language that would allow OHSU and AFSCME to collaborate where possible when employees are detained or otherwise targeted by local, state, or federal organizations without risking targeting from bad faith actors outside of our communities. Teams are aligned on intent and are looking for a way to address the problem.
Took another approach at protections for employees who are going through the accommodation process. If you’re managing a temporary or permanent disability that makes it difficult to meet attendance or performance expectations without an accommodation, you should be protected while your request is being processed.
Tweaked language empowering OHSU and AFSCME to work together when our members are targeted by possibly hostile Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. OHSU has a legal requirement to cooperate with these that we’re not trying to restrict or impede, but we do want to continue cooperating with the employer to protect our members and with our membership who are impacted.
OHSU Counters:
Economic Supposal: Full language available here. Areas where there is not agreement or where OHSU has added something back into their offer are summarized below.
7.5.1 Lactation periods: OHSU wants to lean heavily on the accommodation process, which our team finds frustrating and inappropriate. An automatic approval might make this more appealing, but we’re still pushing back to make this as easy on our employees who may be nursing their children as possible.
7.7 Double Back: Still disagreement on the specifics of the work option. We believe employees who come back in should get time and ½ for their entire shift plus double time for the affected hours.
8.1 Across the Board Increases: As summarized above:
Year 1: Greater of 4% or $1.25 with a new minimum wage of $22 an hour.
Year 2: 3.25% with the minimum wage increasing by same ($22.72).
Year 3: 3% with the minimum wage increasing by same ($23.40).
10.1.2 Rates: Increased evening shift differential minimum from $1.36 to $1.75 and night shift from $2.65 to $3.
10.2 On-Call Pay: Agreed to moving from 6 to 5 hours and cut our language that would have on call hours worked receive double time for hours worked on a holiday.
10.2.1 High-Volume Work Due to Call: Only changed our name from “excessive call.”
10.10 Work Out of Classification: Agreed to all substantive language and updated one phrase from “unduly deny” to “unreasonably deny” to better match other contract language.
10.14.1 (ANI) Rate: Wants to move from current contract language of 35% to 40% with no change to minimum and removing the ability for departments to set a higher ANI rate.
10.X Staffing Stabilization: Agreed to much of the language that would have the employer and union collaborate on identifying issues but stripped any financial component.
11.1 Recognized Holidays: Rejected proposal for Indigenous Peoples Day.
Holidays: Rejected language that would allow those who work 10 or 12 hour shifts no longer have to use accruals or work extra hours to make up for the gap between their normal shift and holiday pay. Refused language that would allow those who work evening and night shifts to receive holiday compensation for more/all of their shifts.
12.1 Accrual of Vacation Time: Current contract language (no additional time).
13.1 Accrual of Sick Time: Current contract language (no additional time).
15.2.3 Maximum annual contribution increase: We want to raise this to empower our Employee Benefits Council but OHSU is holding at current contract language.
15.3 Insurance Coverage and Employee Benefits Council: OHSU has agreed to a national group plan, but wants to stick to two plans (we would prefer a third option being added) and states this is for “employees that work outside of Oregon and Southwest Washington” when we want to be sure we’re also covering employees who may be in Oregon but are too far from Portland to come to OHSU for all of their care. This would take place in the 2027.
19.11.1 Order of curtailment/cancellation: Insisting that temp workers be curtailed “as permitted under their contract.” Also addressed in the Temp Worker Package.
Appendix A: Identical to previous passes from OHSU but they have stated they are willing to work with us via an MOU that we have passed to them.
Appendix B: OHSU has changed their proposal significantly. They want to make flex pay more standardized (current contract language is “up to 150%” and in practice this means anywhere from less than the FTE employees are getting all the way to 150%) with a 15% differential. Full language below:
ANI Non-Economic Package: Split off non-economic language regarding Additional Need Incentive (ANI) so that we can agree reduce this to the areas where there’s disagreement. We are still in disagreement on when relief and flex employees would qualify for ANI. OHSU wants a requirement that they work 32 hours in a work week before qualifying. Full language is below (bolded language is new):
4. Rates of Pay. Until the change described in the following paragraph, tThe rate of pay for a flex staff employee may vary from the minimum hourly rate for the applicable job classification to one hundred fifty percent (150%) of the range maximum. Experience will be considered when determining rate of pay. Rate of pay may be negotiated individually between the employee and their supervisor at any time.
Starting within six months of the effective date of this Agreement, new flex employees shall be placed according to their experience in the job and then will receive a ten (10%) fifteen percent (15%) differential on top of the otherwise applicable hourly rate for the applicable job classification. Existing flex employees making less than the rate above based on relevant years of experience will receive the rate described above. Existing flex employees making more than the rate they would receive based on relevant years of experience will not receive the ten fifteen percent (15%) differential and will continue to receive their existing flex differential until the Step and Grade Appendix becomes effective have their wage frozen until the rate above exceeds their wage.
Appendix C Employee Benefits Council (EBC): OHSU has agreed to a solicitation of proposals from insurance companies in plan year 2027, which was sincerely intended as a step towards us but we had a very effective discussion with management about how this doesn’t meet our needs. Work will continue here and at the joint table where we’re discussing the EBC alongside our sibling unions.
MOU 28 Well-Being Leave: Relief employees will receive 4 hours of well-being leave and FTE employees will receive an increase from 8 to 12 hours per year. OHSU is holding on wanting a restriction on using well-being leave adjacent to vacation or a holiday.
MOU 29 Task Force re: Advanced Professional Certification Pay: Rejected.
MOU X Social Work Council: Identical to previous pass, which adds two social workers. We are in agreement with this specific language.
MOU X Training Trust: Rejected.
MOU X One-Time Payment: If no strike notice is issued, 0.5-1.0 FTE will receive $1500 and $750 for employees “with an FTE of 0.5 FTE.”
Step and Grade: Moved from 18 total steps (13 “regular” and 5 “longevity”) to 17. We have not gone through all the details as a bargaining team yet, but in a short review it appears the major changes are the number of steps and the percentages for the steps. OHSU’s current proposal:
Steps 1-3: 4%
Steps 4-7: 2.75%
Steps 8-11: 2%
Steps 12-17: 1%
Our most recent pass was 15 steps with the following percentages:
Steps 1-4: 4%
Steps 5-10: 3%
Steps 11-12: 1.5%
Steps 13-15: 1%
8.3 Merit-Based Adjustments: Cut entirely.
We appreciate your patience waiting for the details of what was passed yesterday. It took time to put all this together, especially with all of the steward and membership meetings today.
While we are still far apart on the major economic issues, management was very collaborative yesterday with a real focus on coming to agreement on everything that we could. This didn’t get us to a tentative agreement, but this change in their approach was evident and helped make it a productive day.
Our successful strike vote didn’t instantly get us the TA we were hoping for, but it made a clear difference in what we saw at the table.
Details about member actions, meetings, and other events are upcoming and will be shared separately. A lot of work is being done behind the scenes and we’ll have places where you can plug in if you want to get involved.
Thank you for the power you’ve given our team at the table. Everything we have won or will win in this contract comes from your passion and involvement.