“As touted on the OHSU website, OHSU is the #1 hospital in Oregon and they state “OHSU, we never settle for how things have been done before.” Several of our peer hospitals in Oregon are also at the bargaining table, they are asking for wage proposals that are equal to or greater than what we are asking for today. OHSU needs to be a leader in all areas, not just the ones that are convenient and comfortable. Focus on the staff that you have, recruit the best of the best, and make it desirable for them to want to stay.”  Bill Erickson, RN  - 6A PACU

As many as 200 nurses from across OHSU virtually packed the bargaining room for our ninth bargaining session on March 8. This was an important day as we presented our major economic package regarding wages, differentials, CNI, health benefits, education, and other financial items. Nurses from nearly every major area of the hospital spoke out powerfully, stating that it was time to take a stand and change things at OHSU. We thank each person so much for standing together on this long-awaited and empowering day! Taking action like this is paramount to winning a strong contract.

Our bargaining team members took turns presenting, focusing on the areas where they have valuable and detailed knowledge. For weeks, our team has been hard at work preparing the economic proposals and spent the day prior to our presentation caucusing. We will be sharing our economic power point at our All-Member Bargaining Update on Wednesday, March 22 (see more below). Our team knew it was time to take proactive steps to address the complex crisis facing nurses, our hospital, and our patients.  We made it clear–the status quo will not get us through this. We must see very real and serious change in our collective bargaining agreement to retain and recruit enough nurses to keep our hospital functioning. Our proposals demonstrate the clear and detailed needs of our 3050 AURN nurses. And we emphasized how much we support our ASFCME colleagues and demand that their service be recognized when they become nurses and join the AURN. Standing together, standing strong, our nurses left the bargaining session with a sense of optimism. We know what it will take, and we sent a clear message that we are standing together to finally see real change at OHSU.

Remember that we show power in numbers, so please help us by making sure you and your colleagues have signed the Bargaining Platform Petition, and by packing the room at our next bargaining session on Wednesday, April 5 at the ONA Office in Tualatin.

SAVE THE DATES for future Bargaining Sessions

4/5 @ONA
4/12 @OHSU
4/19 @ONA
4/26 @OHSU
5/3 @ONA
5/10 virtual (You will need to register)
5/24 @OHSU
5/31 @ONA
6/7 @OHSU
6/14 @ONA
6/21 @OHSU

The Economic Situation: Key Statistics

• Portland inflation grew almost 33% in the past ten years.
• We remain in a 6% inflationary environment for 2023.
• Portland’s median home value is nearly 200k higher than the national average.
• Over the the past ten years, OHSU's net position grew to $3.9 billion and now has unrestricted cast reserves of $1.3 billion. Meanwhile, AURN wages fell by 3.45% during that same timeframe.
• OHSU executive compensation totaled $30 million in 2018.
• Traveler costs were $89 million between July 2021 and April 2022.
• OHSU received $20 million to support education from our state and requested $41,680,000 more in the 2023 Oregon legislative session.
• OHSU is a nationally recognized hospital, a premier level 1 trauma center and an ANCC magnet hospital. Our nurses and patients deserve better.
• We used UC Davis in Sacramento, CA as a comparator. Like OHSU, it is a level 1 trauma center, a research hospital in the top 40 best hospitals in the country, and magnet certified. The cost of living is 6% higher in Portland than in Sacramento.
• Despite Sacramento having a lower cost of living, UC Davis wages are significantly higher. First year RNs at UC Davis make $66.23/hour whereas OHSU RNs make $44.78/hour.

Since 2019, 36% of our bargaining unit nurses have left OHSU. That is a lot of institutional knowledge lost.  Some of our departments, like emergency, have lost nearly 60% of their nurses. Many other large departments have lost 40-50% of their nurses.

We made it clear; OHSU can clearly afford to do better for its workers. We expect management to make responsible choices to utilize resources that retain and recruit nurses, so we can properly care for our patients!

Retention and Recruitment Proposal

“A significant increase to our shift differentials is overdue. It will help curb our turnover rates. It will help to retain experienced nurses on nights. It will allow for the nurses who cannot tolerate the health impacts of night shift to move to days quicker instead of quitting or transferring – and it will more fairly compensate nurses who stay on nights for the compounding impacts to our health. It will better balance our skill mix – and will improve our ability to provide complex patient care to the full 24 hours that our patients require it. It’s time for our shift differentials to move to a percentage. No longer should they become increasingly insignificant over time, and no longer should they be increasingly insignificant the longer the nurse is exposed to these health impacts. We are dying on night shift. This is long overdue.” Evan Lafky, RN - 12K

Differentials & Call:

• Night Shift – 22%, with new hours from 1900-0700
• Evening Shift – 15% with new hours from 1500-1900
• Charge and Service Lead Coordinator – 15%

“Our charges are integral in keeping floor morale high, in answering complex questions and coordinating complex care for our most fragile patients. They act as role models and teachers for our new nurses and help set the high standard of care OHSU is known for. Their expertise helps a new generation of nurses work at the top of their license and help keep our nurses at the bedside by advocating for our units and patients…OHSU needs to demonstrate that they value that experience and expertise by not just increasing their differential, but tying it to base wages as a percentage so that our more experienced nurses are incentivized and rewarded for keeping the ship afloat.” Duncan Zevetski, RN - 13K

• Preceptor – 10% for precepting any type of student
• Specialty Float Pool – 20%; plus a guarantee to receive the differential from beginning of employment.
• Floating – 10% for every float
• Bilingual – 10%, and applying to all languages where the nurse passes the certified test.
• Call Pay – $14.74 for mandatory call (set by Portland minimum wage rate); $7.37 for voluntary call

We proposed a new mandatory call pay structure, which would recognize the sacrifice of excess call, by compensating nurses at a higher rate the more call hours they take.

“Our on-call pay should reflect not only the benefit to the hospital but also the burden on our lives to be available to our patients at a moment’s notice. We are passionate about what we provide in our specialty areas and only we can provide the care we are being called in for…We are making a sacrifice for our community and our patients. It is a huge offering these dedicated nurses are providing for the hospital.” Corinn Joseph, RN - South OR

Critical Need Incentive (CNI) & CNI Plus:

A new two-tiered shift incentive structure to replace CNI/MOV/vMOT/etc. was proposed on Wednesday.

CNI – $60/hour

CNI Plus – $85/hour, NEW incentive for severe short staffing.

• Exact criteria for meeting CNI and CNI Plus are in the proposal.
• Resource nurses would be eligible for CNI if they provide availability for 40 hours in a 2-week period.
• Regarding overtime, we proposed clearer language to reduce mandatory, or unwanted, overtime.
• If mandatory overtime needs to occur, we proposed a $100 per hour differential. CNI Plus would need to be offered first to find volunteers before forcing someone to stay.
• For nurses that work on call, we proposed double time for all On Call Hours Worked on a holiday.   

“We know that our infrastructure is strained. Our patient volumes have already burst our seams. The ONLY answer to this failed infrastructure is staff, and the only way to get an already overworked staff to work even more, is with incentive pay.” Diana Bijon, RN - Adult ED

Wages

Given the lack of assurance we have that OHSU wage increases will be adjusted if inflation changes dramatically again, we proposed a two-year contract. 

• We proposed a 10% market adjustment across the board for the first pay period following 7/1/2023.
• In addition, we proposed a 15% cost of living adjustment to catch up with 2022 and 2023 inflation for the first pay period following 7/1/2023.
• For the first pay period following 7/1/2024, we proposed a 12% cost of living adjustment.

Additionally, we proposed retention differentials ranging from 5-10%, based upon years of service for any type of employment at OHSU. We emphasized how much we support our ASFCME colleagues and demand that their service be recognized when they become nurses and join the AURN.

Holidays and Vacation

• We proposed that nurses who must work on the recognized holidays would be paid double time.
• Added Juneteenth (June 19) and Indigenous People’s Day as recognized holidays.
• Added two new Floating Holidays, which would give 2 additional paid days to be added to accruals. This would help nurses who recognize Eid Al-Adha, Rosh Hashana, Lunar New Year, and so many other important holidays to have additional paid time off without having to use their vacation.
• A proposed 10% increase in our holiday and vacation accrual section, to recognize additional holidays and to provide nurses with much needed respite and work life balance after the intense workloads throughout the pandemic.
• We proposed that the vacation ceiling be lifted to 480 hours and for the hold bank to be extended to one year.

Utilization of Benefit Time

• We added language to the scheduled time off section, clarifying that vacation/holiday or compensatory time would count towards fulfilling FTE or minimum required shifts (MRS).
• For resource nurses, we added that nurses who move from a regular position to a resource position would be paid an additional 15% if unused vacation and compensatory time isn’t paid out in a timely manner. We added that resource nurses could choose to retain up to 120 vacation hours to use if they return to FTE.
• We increased the maximum vacation cash out to 200 hours (currently 100 hours).
• On donation process, we added that a representative appointed by the association shall be included in the decision-making process for the donation pool. We also added that eligible employees may apply for funds in anticipation of other accruals/benefits ending and do not need to wait to apply.

Vacation Leave Administration

• We proposed a guide be created to help all nurses understand processes related to vacation to help make sure everyone has a better chance to use vacation time.
• For In-Block Vacation Requests, we added that requests shall be kept up to date and located where they can be accessible for all to view.
• In annual allotment, we added that employees must be given the correct number of weeks to take their annual allotment. We also added that baseline FTE allocated for each unit should be at least a 20% increase to provide coverage for nurses using paid and unpaid time.
• We increased the annual allotments based upon years of service.

Other Leave

• Bereavement Leave:
  We proposed 5 days of paid bereavement leave for each loss of a family/household member. (currently it’s only 12 hours)
• Wellness Days:
  Nurses will be able to request two wellness days per year. If the schedule is already posted, the manager and employee will work together to find coverage for the shifts.
• Oregon Family Medical Leave Insurance:
  We proposed that the employer (OHSU) should pay the 0.6% that is now coming out of nurse paychecks.

Insurance Benefits

• We increased coverage to 95% for the employee and dependents (currently 88%) for medical, dental and vision plans. Nearly all state employees in Oregon receive 95%.
• We proposed that OHSU provide an equivalent third-party health insurance coverage option due to the severe lack of in network providers with MODA and the conflict of interest in OHSU providing our healthcare through MODA.

• Support for mental health of nurses:
  • Adding mental health providers to the network so that nurses do not experience any longer    than a two month wait time for an appointment.
  • Requiring OHSU provide social workers and other trained professionals to guide nurses through mental health resources when needed, and pause disciplinary processes to assist nurses in crisis.

Staff Development

• Required Education & Certifications:
  nurses shall be reimbursed for ACLS, PALS, NRP, or any other required certification for any patient population they are trained to accept a patient assignment for in their unit or elsewhere.
• Increasing the staff development fund to $500 per FTE (currently $275 and hasn’t increased in 10 years). Adding that unused funds will rollover as authorized by the Professional Nurse Care Committee (PNCC).
• Educational leave hours increased to 36 hours for each benefitted nurse (currently it is 16 hours).
• Certification differential:
  5% on all hours worked (instead of a lump sum)
• Graduate benefit:
  increasing the tuition that can be reimbursed based upon years of service.

SAVE THE DATE: All-Member Bargaining Update
When: Wednesday, March 22 at 1200-1300, 1430-1530, 1630-1730, and 1930-2030
Where: Zoom
Who: All AURN Members