Summary of Bargaining So Far
Next week our contract expires.
We’ve begun mediation and our first rally for this contract campaign is happening this Friday, so it’s a good time to step back and summarize what we’ve seen at the table over the past six months.
We met with OHSU for the first time on January 7th and passed our first proposals on January 28th. Since then we’ve opened or created 238 contract articles.
Our team did our best to be sure no stone was left unturned. We knew from the start that we couldn’t get everything that we asked for, but we worked hard to get everything our membership has asked for in front of the employer.
As we get further into this process, we recognize it’s harder to keep track of everything that’s been shared at the table. Below you’ll find our biggest proposals and OHSU’s responses.
WAGES:
On April 8th, AFSCME proposed an aggressive wage increase aimed at bringing everyone at OHSU up to a living wage. We lifted the floor and refused to allow that to be at the expense of those who are currently above that line. Our employer exploits all of us and we all deserve more. That never has to be at the cost of our fellow workers.
OHSU’s response was … underwhelming.
AFSCME:
Year 1: $10 per hour or 11%
Year 2: $5 or 9%
Year 3: $5 or 9%
OHSU:
Year 1: $1
Year 2: $0.50
Year 3: 1.75%
TIME OFF:
We took a broad approach to getting additional time off, trying to give OHSU options to choose from. They’ve historically been very resistant to giving us additional sick time, going so far as to create Well-Being Leave in 2022 as a way to give additional time off without adding to that bank. Our team took that as inspiration to be creative with our proposals.
Vacation Time:
AFSCME:
1-5 years of service: Additional 8 days.
5-10 years of service: Additional 9 days.
10-15 years of service: Additional 10 days.
15-20 years of service: Additional 11 days.
20+ years of service: Additional 11 days.
OHSU:
No additional vacation time.
Holidays:
AFSCME:
Day after Thanksgiving
Indigenous Peoples Day (as floating holiday)
OHSU:
No additional holidays
Well-Being Leave:
AFSCME:
Increase to 2 days and increase the bank from 24 to 32 hours.
12 additional hours every 6 months for people in trauma intensive roles or 12 ad hoc hours for those who experience something traumatic at work.
OHSU:
No additional well-being leave.
Sick Time:
AFSCME:
An extra week of sick time, taking us from 12 to 17 days.
Community Outbreak Leave: A new bank of 80 hours we proposed to help with unforeseen situations like the recent measles outbreaks and other hopefully rare but serious exposures. OHSU would have broad control over what would be covered under this leave.
OHSU:
No additional sick leave of any kind.
Paid Bereavement Leave:
AFSCME:
Increase from 20 to 40 hours
Additional 4 hours to attend the funeral of a coworker.
OHSU:
4 additional hours.
No additional time when you lose a coworker, but you can use your limited hours to attend their funeral.
RETIREMENT:
AFSCME:
12% contribution to 401(a) UPP - a return to what we received prior to 2015.
Matching contributions to our 403(b) up to 6%, increasing to 8% at 3 years, 10% at 5 years, 12% at 10 years, 14% at 15 years, 16% at 20 years, and 20% at 25 years.
For PERS employees, return to what we received prior to 2015 - 6% contribution.
Add language back to our contract that states that if there’s a change to the law that prevents OHSU from contributing to our retirement plan, we will receive a 5% wage increase.
OHSU:
No changes to existing contract language.
EMPLOYEE BENEFITS COUNCIL (EBC):
AFSCME:
We worked with all of the other unions at OHSU to propose this language together.
Restructure the EBC to better reflect the makeup of OHSU’s workforce and remove the President’s ability to break ties.
Demanded OHSU add a nationwide plan for our remote employees who are out of state.
Demanded OHSU guarantee access to healthcare that has become politically charged, even though it’s medically necessary.
The EBC must be given an actual budget to work with rather then being told to work within percentages that lack context.
OHSU:
OHSU hasn’t responded to the restructuring of the EBC or the demand for a proper budget yet.
Agreed in principle to having a nationwide plan. We’re working on specifics.
OHSU rejected guaranteeing access to specific healthcare needs.
LAYOFFS:
AFSCME:
Prior to layoffs, OHSU will meet with the union to attempt to avoid or minimize impact.
Added travelers and agency to the list of people who must be laid off before regular employees.
Allowed people to be placed within their executive organizational unit and not just within their work unit.
Added recall language that would compel OHSU to offer positions to people who have been laid off when the same position opens.
Other sweeping and small changes using what we learned from the 2024 layoffs.
OHSU:
Has not yet responded to our layoff language.
APPENDIX A:
AFSCME:
Restricted non-applicable contract provisions to those who are not required to work specific, scheduled hours. This means that if you are salary but are scheduled as if you’re a shift worker, you will receive overtime and more than 20 other contract articles that you were previously exempted from.
Removed hours of work articles 7.5 and 7.6 for rest and meal periods from the list of non-applicable contract provisions. No one should work a full shift without breaks.
Added a voluntary process to move from salary to hourly pay.
Added a provision so salary employees can use half-days of accruals under a more generous list of circumstances.
Tweaked seniority accrual to better reflect the hours salary employees work
OHSU:
Struck exemption for workers who work specific, scheduled hours.
Added 7.5 and 7.6 back into exempted articles, removing our guarantee that everyone gets a break.
Added weekend differentials to the list of exempted articles.
Rejected our voluntary process to move from salary to hourly and made a commitment to review all salary positions that have an hourly equivalent to determine whether they should, in fact, be hourly. This would remove all employee choice and paint with a broad brush. It also assumes OHSU would come to a different decision than the one they’ve already made regarding certain salary employees who do shift work. It would be far too easy for OHSU to move everyone in places like Pharmacy and ITG to salary and avoid ever paying them differentials or overtime and no longer giving them breaks and lunches.
Accepted most of our conditions where salary workers can use half-days of accruals.
Rejected our updates to how seniority for salary workers is calculated.
If there are proposals that you want to catch up on that aren’t listed above, you can do a search of our blog or comment below and we’ll try to get you a comparison as quickly as possible.