Mediation Update for 8/5/2025
Today’s mediation was long and frustrating. OHSU attempted to deliver a broad economic package that showed too little movement. After several hours, there were heated exchanges that led management to call for a caucus and walk out before finishing their presentation.
Based on how far apart we were and how much pushback our team gave OHSU, it was decided they should send us their proposals via email and we would work with the mediator to respond.
OHSU did not get us the written proposals until almost 5 PM, so there has not been time to go through them as a team. We have a work day next Tuesday and will be meeting with OHSU and the state mediator again on August 19th.
Some highlights before the session was ended:
No additional vacation or sick time.
No to our solutions to the problems with Appendix A.
No to restoring our retirement benefits.
OHSU regularly misinterpreted our intentions and rather than asking questions or relying on the presentations we provided with every proposal that crossed the table, they rejected them. Much of our time was spent explaining our rationale for a second or third time. Some items had been discussed dozens of times over the course of the last few years.
The lack of movement was disappointing. Our team worked with the mediator to provide proper context for our frustrations with management’s responses. We are hopeful this will help guide the rest of the mediation process so future sessions can be more fruitful.
We are scheduled to meet with the mediator on August 19th and 26th. They will also be joining our team next week during our work day.
As a reminder, we are unable to livestream or record our mediation sessions. If there are more sessions where we are meeting only with OHSU, we will bring those back. Watch the blog, your email, and our social media for future bargaining actions and events as our campaign escalates.
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