The following press release has been issued:
(AURN bargaining summary below)
As we near a sanctioned strike of Providence nurses, today the Oregon Nurses Association, that also represents over 3,550 nurses across the OHSU system, has issued several 10-day legal notices for system wide informational pickets of OHSU, OHSU Hillsboro and its partner, Columbia Memorial Hospital. We have gathered pledges from the vast majority of nurses across the OHSU system to call for informational pickets the week of June 26. Nurses will picket at the following locations and times:
Columbia Memorial Hospital in Astoria: Tuesday, June 27, 7-9 a.m. and 5-7 p.m.
OHSU Hillsboro: Wednesday, June 28, 5-7 p.m.
OHSU Marquam Hill: Thursday, June 29, 5-8 p.m.
Nurses stand together with their union colleagues at Providence and across the OHSU system to fight for retention, recruitment, and respect. At the heart of these efforts is a commitment to solving the nurse staffing crisis.
The nurses at these three OHSU hospitals have collective bargaining agreements that are about to expire, or already have. It is unacceptable that a system with $4 billion in reserves has not reached fair agreements that prioritize nurses and their patients.
If any nurses have not pledged your support for the informational picket, you may still do so at this link.
Info Picket FAQ here.
Also, please be sure to sign up for a shift or attend a rally at the Providence strikes
here. We need to show our ONA colleagues that we have their back!
Bargaining Summary for June 14:
Management Presents Economic Proposal that is Out of Touch
On Wednesday, June 14, management presented their first financial counter proposal. Hundreds of nurses tuned in virtually to show their support for retention, recruitment, and respect. Unfortunately, the proposal left those that were in attendance very disappointed as it would not properly compensate our members. Evan Lafky, a long-time nurse on 12K stated, “These numbers fell short of what it will take to curb the staffing crisis at OHSU that has been ongoing for years. Management’s delays in making real movement towards a fair agreement are unacceptable.” Their proposal left us behind the increases our OHSU AFSCME peers have negotiated, the recent tentative agreement reached for St. Charles Bend, and most important of all—it left us behind our peers at other Level 1 Trauma Research Institutions. Management’s proposals and the overwhelming support from nurses across the hospital have led to our bargaining team authorizing an informational picket.
Management has asserted some numbers regarding our proposals that have raised questions. Our members can see the math quite easily in what they take home in their paycheck every week, and how inflation has effectively decreased AURN nurse wages by 3.5% over the last several years, despite our requests for increases. Over that same time, OHSU accumulated $1.2 billion in excess revenue bringing assets to $4 billion.
To catch up with multiple years of inflation, and prepare for upcoming inflation, we need cost-of-living increases of 15% and 12%. To adjust for being behind other Level 1 Trauma Research Hospitals, an additional market adjustment of 9% is necessary. In total, this would mean a 24% increase in the first year, and 12% in the second year. That is a 36% total increase over the life of the contract. Nurses at St. Charles Bend have reached a tentative agreement with management for around 29% increases over the life of their contract giving them wages above OHSU.
For the night shift differential, management had previously given us a proposal that moved us from 27th out of 31 Oregon hospitals, to 26th. We told management this was unacceptable. They then offered us a night shift differential that moved us from 26th to 25th out of 31 hospitals. The lack of serious movement is sorely out of touch with the market and what is necessary to stop having nurses leave night shift and leave OHSU. After the dollar amount went unchanged for 20 years, we cannot continue with a flat rate and must move to a percentage, so we don’t fall behind again. One of the keys to turning around our staffing crisis is retaining a strong night shift.
We have made it clear for years now that we need retention prioritized. We are asking for a range of 5-10% bumps for nurses who have stayed at OHSU between 5 and 30 years, with a bump occurring every five years to make a serious and lasting impact on retention. Nurses need to be valued for having stayed at OHSU and not just leave or become travelers. Management has been compensating travelers double and triple what OHSU nurses earned during the pandemic. This cannot continue, the market has changed. Management needs to respect and truly value OHSU nurses and their flat-out rejection of this proposal is troubling.
Management also presented proposals on a variety of other issues including the Resource Nurse article in which they reasserted their idea to increase MRS in exchange for improvements. Our resource nurses have made it clear we need improvements without management’s demand for a drastic MRS increase.
After the economic presentation, both bargaining teams officially started the mediation process. Each team had separate introductions with the government mediator and spent time discussing our number one bargaining priority regarding staffing in hopes of resuming the exchange of proposals on this.
The teams will be in mediation this Tuesday, June 20, and bargaining over non-economic items on Wednesday, June 21 before our June 29 Informational Picket, and contract expiration on June 30. Both sides have agreed to continue mediation in July.
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