Mediation Update for 7/8/2025
Since both teams are still moving significantly, it made sense not to meet with the mediator today. We are still successfully peeling off articles we’ve agreed on so that we can get down to the financial asks that lie at the heart of our biggest disagreements.
The sooner we can clear these non-financial articles, the sooner we can get to the places where things will be much more contentious. That’s when we’ll really need the services of the mediator.
While we don’t have a tentative agreement yet on articles 2 and 24, we’ve agreed on most of the language and are getting very close to securing these important wins for our steward program and grievance process. There aren’t any TA’s listed today, but that’s only because we’re laying the groundwork to accept entire articles at once.
There are still points of frustration, of course. As we passed back language about flex and relief employees’ usage of vacation, it seemed management didn’t fully understand how these workers actually access their benefits. Additionally, after having OHSU deny our proposal to add funding to the Career and Workplace Enhancement Center to train people and support them in forming Labor Management Committees (LMC’s) last week, today they told us every department could benefit from having access to an LMC.
We wholeheartedly agree. Which is why we requested the extra funding.
AFSCME Counters
Article 2 Union Provisions Package: This is packaged not because we are stating OHSU has to accept all or nothing, but for clarity. OHSU moved significantly last week, so we’ve been able to agree to many of the changes with our biggest wins and differences laid out below:
2.2 Exclusive Representative: We’re continuing to push back on this language, including “designated representatives” so that our union stewards can meet with members on paid time in the same way our union staff can.
2.3 Release Time for Union Officers: Union President: Added a 6 month look back for relief and flex employees who may be elected with a minimum assumed FTE of 0.5. This way OHSU can’t short hours for someone who doesn’t have an FTE.
Vice-President: Added the same look back described above.
Secretary: Requested again that 5 of the Secretary’s 10 hours per week be paid by the employer. Added the same look back described above.
Treasurer: Made the same requests as we did for the Secretary.
2.4 Union Stewards:
2.4.1 Appointment of Stewards: Agreed to current contract language for regular stewards in exchange for the movement on the number of lead and senior lead stewards. We will go from 1 to 5 senior lead stewards and from 11 to 1 lead steward per 500 represented employees. Since our total bargaining unit contains almost 8500 workers, this will give us at least 16 lead stewards upon ratification.
2.4.2 Paid Release Hours: Agreed to increasing the total number of steward release hours from 3,800 to 6,494 based on a new metric of 45 minutes per bargaining unit member. This will adjust yearly. We added a provision that will exclude union officer release time from these hours.
Agreed to keeping lead and senior lead steward hours at current levels (150 hours for lead stewards and 200 for senior leads) in exchange for having additional leads and senior leads.
OHSU crossed out language stating that a steward’s request for additional time should they use all of theirs “not be unreasonably denied.” We added an escalation process to appeal to the head of Labor Relations if a request is denied.
Pushed back on timekeeping requirements. Stewards should enter their hours in a reasonable and timely manner, but we don’t want to create a new way for OHSU to crack down on steward activities.
Chief Steward: Requested that OHSU pay for all Chief Steward hours. OHSU creates a lot of the work that the Chief Steward has to do. We also added the same language for relief and flex employees getting a look back that we’ve added to our other officers above.
2.7 New Employee Orientation: Expanded who can attend NEO’s to “designated representatives” so that other types of member leaders can help with this important task. Clarified that this will be on employer compensated time.
2.9 Bargaining Unit Data: OHSU continues to push back on our demand to have traveler and agency workers tracked and reported on. We’ve amended our language to ask for the classification, number of incumbents, and locations worked. We are trying to be considerate of OHSU’s reporting limitations but we can not accept that there’s no way to gather this information. If a mechanism doesn’t exist, then it should. It would not be the first time our union’s contract forced OHSU to create new policies and procedures.
2.11.2 Union Communication from Internal Sources: OHSU has added a restriction against fundraising or membership drives, claiming there’s a legal vulnerability created allowing these sorts of messages. We don’t agree with their interpretation and don’t want to create a way for management to limit our ability to communicate with each other. Fundraising isn’t something we’re ever likely to do as a union, but a member shouldn’t find themselves in an investigatory meeting because they shared a GoFundMe after a coworker experiences a tragedy.
6.16 Access to Pager/Communication Systems and Equipment: Clarified that someone delivering a device to another employee must not do it outside of regularly scheduled hours. Crossed out language that would exclude an employee’s regular commute from being reimbursed under this article.
6.16.1 Replacement of Non-Shared OHSU Issued Devices: OHSU rejected this language because they claim they no longer or will no longer have these. The reality is that they’re still in wide usage throughout the organization. It may be a goal to phase them out, but it hasn’t happened yet and this language is still necessary to protect our members until they have.
8.7.3 Written request for Market-Based Review or New Classification Request: Re-submitted our previous proposal from 6/10.
12.3 Use of Vacation: Pushed back again, understanding that OHSU wants to be sure people can’t cash out more hours than they normally work but we don’t want people with truly flexible schedules to have fewer options. After a discussion, both parties believe we’re closer than the differences in our language may suggest.
For relief employees, we’re holding on our previous language that allows maximum flexibility. Management is concerned that this flexibility may be misread and may result in a relief employee being required to use more time than they need to. We also clarified that the standard of “what they typically work” could be complicated as many relief employees work different amounts at different times of year based on their needs.
We’ll hopefully be able to wrap this up with another pass.
18.1.3 When Job Bid is Unnecessary: Agreed to revert to current contract language.
18.2.2 Selection Process and Priority to Internal Candidates: Our team feels strongly that the internal reference can not be limited to or must include their current supervisor. Our compromise is that they must include an internal reference who is familiar with their work in their current position.
Article 24 Grievance Package: This is also packaged just for convenience, not because it’s an “all or nothing” proposal.
24.1.3 Union Representation: We cut superfluous language that allows the manager to speak to an employee about unrelated matters after they’ve filed a grievance. We discussed this last week when they passed it and how we felt it was unnecessary.
24.1.4 Grievances of Specific Matters: Added that grievances regarding reclassifications “shall be” reviewed by Compensation.
Reintroduced language that explicitly states that verbal warnings are void after 1 year and written warnings after 2 years.
Reintroduced language that would allow a grievance to be won if management fails to respond. We expanded the dates from 7 to 21 days to match the other deadlines we’ve agreed to throughout the article. If the grievance is won in this manner, negotiations (including arbitration, if needed) would be over the remedy.
OHSU Counters:
5.5 Consensus: Agreed to most of our language, but the differences are significant.
Agreed to us cutting a minimum of 3 people being needed to initiate a consensus agreement.
Removed our demand to add staffing plans for departments outside of hospital staffing law.
b. Removed “no more than 1 management member from ad-hoc committee and added that a steward who joins the committee must be from the department.. We raised concerns about departments that may not have a steward.
c. Agreed to removing that it would be ratified by management and changed the reference to what manager would be included from the unit manager to “management representatives” to give more options.
e. Added a provision that would allow either party to rescind an agreement within 30 days of its implementation in addition to the agreed upon 30 days notice and changed it so that either party could demand it be canceled.
MOU X Consensus Agreement Reporting: Agreed to the language from our last pass.
5.46 Work Unit: Much better language this pass. The definition stipulates that a work unit “generally (but not necessarily)” shares the characteristics. This helps capture non-clinical roles that may work very differently from what the majority of our membership sees. They also added that work units can be shaped by consensus agreements.
6.6.3 Failure to Reach Agreement: They moved towards us on the use of Labor Management Committees (LMC) but want management to have greater control if one is not in place.They mentioned that this kind of conflict may indicate that it’s a work unit that could benefit from forming an LMC. Hopefully this means they’ll reconsider our proposal to add funding to the Career and Workplace Enhancement Center to facilitate training and oversight for LMC’s.
8.4.1 Annual Review: Removed reference to 6.6.3.
6.14 Performance evaluations: Holding on their last proposal. They are concerned having access to feedback from colleagues prior to the evaluation would lead to many more grievances.
We apologize that we were unable to provide livestreaming this week. Our mediator has informed us that we will need to suspend livestreaming during days when he’s facilitating our meetings with management, so there’s a chance we will not have it next week either.
We plan on continuing to provide this important access for our members whenever possible, so barring any technical or staffing issues you can expect to see it back up and running on any sessions where the mediator is not present.
We will have more information about our second bargaining survey very soon. It’s an important opportunity for our membership to weigh in on what’s still on the table and what our bargaining team should prioritize.