The Employer Who Cried Wolf
OHSU is crying poor again, right as we’re in bargaining, asking for our raises. In the past, they’ve said the same thing, then later turned around and given $15 million in bonuses to their executives. Last bargaining session, OHSU said they didn’t have money because of COVID. In the past, OHSU management has gone so far as turning off the Mackenzie Hall fountain to look poor. Despite never seeming to have any money when we need it, it seems to find it when it’s time to hire a CEO, a CFO and a CPO. Money for lawsuits, money for consultants, money for buildings seems to spring eternal for OHSU. Money for the workers who actually make the hospital work appears to be limited.
Recently, OHSU management sent a memo out saying their offer of 4% - 2.5% - 2.5% is the second-highest wage increase in twenty years. How embarrassing for them and outrageous for us. Apparently, unclassified employees are only getting 2% this year. They didn’t mention that UAs' salaries grew 7% more than ours over the course of our last contract, meaning we would need a 9% raise in the first year to keep up with their 2%.
As OHSU’s CFO gets his roses on the way out the door, they mention that in the past 15 years, there has been a 150% increase in revenue, a 125% increase in net worth, with only a 66% increase in employees. OHSU has grown its wealth on our backs. Last year, we were 12% more productive with no new hours for full-time staff. Management’s plan is to continue to squeeze every last drop of work out of us. AFSCME Local 328 says enough. Our members are burnt out from working so hard. Does it feel like you are worn out and need more time to recuperate? That is by management design. We deserve more time off! We are working harder than ever to run this place.
OHSU is arguing that we are already being paid market wages, and they have a special committee to make sure our wages keep up with “the market.”
The market is not working for many of us. The market has people working full-time and living out of their cars. The market has working people relying on food banks. The market is not an intelligent force that keeps our wages fair; the market serves the wealthy people who buy second homes, as we stretch our dollars to afford rent.
When they speak of the market, they are looking at individual positions. What is the cost of one EVS worker? What is the cost of one pharmacist? What is the cost of one MA? But we are not individual workers. We are a collective workforce. We are a premium package of 8,600 workers that is the engine that runs OHSU. From tip to tail, you will find a Local 328 worker in every mission, every office, every building. They CANNOT run OHSU without us, and I dare them to find such a highly skilled, ready-made package on the market.
As they again plead poverty at the bargaining table, we reminded them that said this last time, and the time before that, and the time before. For the last 20 years, they’ve been telling us the same thing; they're the boy who cried wolf. It's time to remind them, the boy who cried wolf was eaten in the end.