Still reeling from the incredible turnout at the picket last week, the AURN Bargaining Team entered another mediation session on Wednesday, June 5, ready to dive into proposals and not back down on our top priorities! 
 
Staffing committee co-chairs, Erica Swartz and Brooke Baldwin (CNE) joined for OHSU management to present their staffing counterproposal.
 
“Management passed a proposal across the table that demonstrates they understand the changes the new safe staffing law will bring. Our bargaining team is committed to advocating for language that ensures we have a commitment to the highest standards of care in all care areas.”- Erica Swartz, RN 10S and Staffing Co-Chair
 
We were frustrated to hear OHSU equate the cost of meal and break coverage (estimated to be $20 million over the next six months) to a 6% wage increase for staff. The necessary costs of running a business in accordance with state law is not a substitute for wage increases and should not be referred to as such. We do not consider this idea as any component of the economic proposal as it stands.
According to the Staffing Committee, 95,044 breaks were missed between January and June of this year, which is a total of 23,761 hours. That doesn’t take into consideration any missed meals, ambulatory areas, or missed breaks that were unreported (because that data isn’t available). Just for breaks, that’s the equivalent of functioning short by 23 nurses at 1.0 FTE. If we use management’s estimate of $20 million per six months for both meals and breaks, it means OHSU has been saving around $40 million every year by not providing proper meal and rest breaks for nurses. When asked at a prior bargaining session where the excess goes when they save money, management responded that it goes back into the larger hospital budget.
 
Want to hear more from our fearless Staffing Co-Chair, Erica? Read this article.
Having had a very productive week of caucus, AURN provided counterproposals on 17 articles, including the 10 articles that make up our economic package. Go here for our side-by-side summary on the top issues. *Spoiler alert: not much has changed on our economic stance as our members have made their position clear. We asked management again to put more effort into reviewing our Trauma Level 1 Research Hospital peers, and the recently ratified agreement at St. Charles Bend. As we fall even further behind our peers who received raises on July 1, we demand that management step up and do the right thing.
 
Our AURN Bargaining team and management will meet with our government mediator on July 11, 19, and 26. We will be communicating with AURN members throughout that process and are asking all members to wear your purple and green union colors!  
SAVE THE DATE: ALL MEMBER MEETING
August 1, 2, 3, and 4 (more details to come!)
And be on the lookout for dates/times of future Contract Action Team/Unit Rep meetings!

NOW IS THE TIME FOR MORE ACTION:
 
Join our Contract Action Team (CAT) 
To help with the next big steps of our campaign we’re recruiting even more CAT members! We are so proud of the massive number of CAT volunteers that helped pull off one of the largest pickets OHSU has ever seen. But we can always use more CAT members, and we need CAT members on every shift and every unit, one per ten nurses. Joining the CAT is as simple as staying informed, and then keeping the folks in your unit and shift engaged in our next actions to stand together with all AURN nurses to finally reach a fair agreement. Email aurnlaborreps@oregonrn.org to join!
Take photos with your coworkers with signs of support 
(no patients, computer monitors or whiteboards in the background please) and if you are willing to let us publicly share them, email to news@oregonrn.org  
 
Ask your local small businesses to put up signs of support in their shop windows  
Be sure to tell them about how we are fighting for patient safety for our entire community. If you need signs, be sure to check in with your CAT members or labor reps (aurnlaborreps@oregonrn.org)
 
Lastly and most importantly: listen & talk one-on-one with your coworkers about the issues that are most important and discuss how we can continue to stand together to prepare for our next steps!