What to Expect from Mediation

As our union moves into mediation, the process and the nature of our communication will need to change. More of the what happens at the table is confidential and non-binding, so some things will not be able to be shared at our usual level of detail.

There won’t be much of an immediate change, but as things heat up the mediator is going to suggest both teams use more creative solutions. These include mediation proposals and “supposals” that might give in one area to secure more in another, but can be rescinded if we can’t come to agreement.

For example, if OHSU agrees to give us more sick time if we’ll back down on our well-being leave requests (though as of their last proposal, they refused to give us any additional time off other than a little paid bereavement leave), we can weigh whether we believe that trade is worth it or not. If we can’t come to an agreement, neither team will have moved from their official proposals while we talked it through.

That said, this was a point of great frustration for our bargaining team and our membership in 2022. OHSU gave us a large “supposal” at the end of bargaining that they insisted we keep confidential and that we respond to within a specific time window. Our team was working hard and weighing options, but the confidential nature made it difficult to communicate that out to our membership or seek feedback.

If you were on the team, you were putting in late nights, debating options, and agonizing over spreadsheets and survey results. If you weren’t, it looked like the team moved a long way with little warning.

These are important tools that we don’t want to take off the table, but we will be mindful of how this has been a point of contention in the past and always balance their use with our commitment to transparency.

We will continue to provide updates every time we meet with OHSU, even when we’re not able to share the entirety of what happened during the day. We’ll continue to livestream anything that we haven’t agreed to keep confidential ahead of time.

Today’s bargaining didn’t utilize any confidential or non-binding proposals and we have made it clear to OHSU and the mediator that we want to keep anything we can’t share directly with our membership to an absolute minimum. There will always be portions of bargaining that don’t leave the room, but this contract and this process should belong to everyone in our union.

If you’d like more information about how the mediation process works under PECBA (Public Employee Collective Bargaining Act), follow this link.