After nine months of negotiations with no agreement reached, the vast majority of nurses at OHSU have called for a strike vote. The vote will occur via secure text and email voting to all nurses in AURN positions from Sept 6-17. If a vast majority of nurses vote in favor of going on strike, the AURN bargaining team may choose to give a ten-day notice for an open-ended strike. The ten-day notice will allow OHSU executives and the OHSU Board of Directors ten days to take immediate action to reach a fair agreement, and/or prepare our institution for the lack of over 3000 nurses.

“We do not want to strike, but we will if that’s what it takes to protect our nurses and patients for years to come. We must see real change at OHSU now more than ever. My fellow nurses have demanded that it’s time for a strike vote as we cannot wait any longer for OHSU executives to take action. We are fighting for our fellow nurses who have suffered immensely under the decision making of OHSU’s executives. We are fighting for our patients who deserve so much better.” - Elisa Youngman, RN, BSN, CCRN, AURN President

We are asking the last remaining nurses who have not yet updated their information to opt-in to ONA text or email by September 5 in order to take part in the strike vote: oregonrn.org/update

Before the strike vote occurs, we are asking all nurses to review the following:
• Comprehensive Side-by-Side Comparison of our proposals and management’s proposals, is newly updated.
• The Strike FAQ is available, and if you have remaining questions speak directly with an AURN Labor Representative (aurnlaborreps@oregonrn.org)
• Sign up for the Contract Action Team, if you haven’t already. These folks will act as Strike Picket Captains and be provided additional training.
• Check our website for more materials and follow us on Instagram where we will be sharing videos and statements from nurses about why they are voting to strike: @aurnursesofona

We know that OHSU works because we do.

Throughout August, we held all-member town hall meetings, nearly 30 strike schools, and nearly 90% of nurses took part in our strike survey pledge.

96% pledge to go on strike. It has been clear that nurses do not want to go on strike but will. Not only did nurses pledge to go on strike but pledged to help in so many other ways! Nurses pledged to talk with their colleagues, family, friends, and neighbors, attend rallies & marches, serve as strike picket captains, and assist with mutual aid efforts throughout a strike to provide food, supplies, first aid and anything else that is needed. This outpouring of genuine support is what demonstrates that if we strike, we will be strong, we will be unified, and we will be unbreakable. The next step is for the formal vote to occur.

The overwhelming response from our survey showed that our members don’t just care about wages. We care even more about the safety of our patients and our coworkers, and the staffing necessary to provide the quality of care all people in our region deserve. As management advertises the deal they are currently offering, we know that you cannot put a dollar amount on having a safe workplace, and an institution that values quality for patients. Offering us a deal that helps some areas, while fails in the most important areas is not a deal we can make. We have also learned that last year when executives reported a $40 million operating loss, OHA now reports that OHSU actually only had a $10.3 million loss in 2022. And in the first two quarters of 2023, we already have a $77.4 million operating surplus. Excess operating margins represent the amount of money executives could have put into properly running OHSU but chose not to.

Where do things stand in mediation?

Currently, management is offering some of the key items we need to reach an agreement. However, they come with strings attached that make that agreement unacceptable. We are holding several 1-2 hour mediation sessions over the next two weeks, followed by three full days of mediation Sept. 13-15. We have the assistance of two government mediators, including the head state conciliator. We currently are awaiting agreement or fair counter proposals from management on all items. Please watch for urgent updates Sept. 13-15.

How did we get here?

We hoped that our bargaining kick-off event in January showed OHSU executives that these negotiations were to be taken very seriously.  

We hoped that hundreds of members packing the bargaining room would be clear to see that our members were watching.  

We hoped that attending the Board of Directors meetings would show we were paying attention. 

We hoped that week in and week out nurses and our colleagues all across OHSU wearing green and purple union colors, shirts, and buttons would be clear and visible to management that we stand together. 

We hoped that 2700 nurses signing our petition in support of our bargaining priorities would be heard when presented to the CFO.

We hoped that executives, the board of directors, the governor, and the entire city and state would pause and take note when over 1500 nurses picketed at OHSU, while the rest kept the hospital functioning through the evening.

We hoped that would be enough to reach a fair agreement for the sake of all nurses and our patients.  But it was not.

How can executives make OHSU better?  

Listen to nurses when we say what is unsafe about OHSU.  

Listen to nurses when we painstakingly gather data, reports, and all the information necessary to put together safe staffing plans. 

Listen to nurses when we tell you what will keep us from leaving.

Listen to nurses when we tell you how to fill scheduling holes and how to properly utilize on-call systems.  

Listen to nurses when we tell you what is needed to reach a fair new collective bargaining agreement. 

Listen to nurses when we tell you that we’ve lost colleagues to the pandemic, the grief, and the moral injury.  

Listen.

Staffing
While we are hopeful that more common ground has been found on our new Staffing Article, there remain several items we know are bottom lines for our members.
• We need a guarantee that Acute Care, Oncology, and the ED will have safe staffing levels. Management has agreed to follow outside professional association staffing standards which protect the majority of our other units, but these three areas lack those published standards.
• We need a guarantee that the budgeted allocations of FTE to cover meals and breaks will be enough to not violate meal and break laws. Also, charge nurses need proper break coverage.
• Current status quo in staffing for Ambulatory is not safe, and must change. Nurses must have paid release time to create proper staffing plans that can accommodate for leaves and absences and the quality of care necessary for the unique needs of each unit.

Workplace Safety
• Key safety changes need to happen immediately using the knowledge of nurses; consultants can continue to improve after that.
• Prevention is key to avoid workplace violence before it occurs. De-escalation through proper staffing and expansion of our Code Green team is essential. Management says they will “endeavor to do so” and that’s simply not enough when we’re talking about violence in our workplace.
• Under state law (ORS 654.414) as a healthcare employer, they must provide “assault prevention and protection training”, specifically including self-defense training, but they refuse to pay for this to optionally be offered to our members, until they bring in an outside consultant for an assessment. Nurses know how to do assessments and have completed this one: we are being assaulted routinely. While we wait, violence continues.
• To impact systemic failures, our workplace violence prevention committees need access to redacted PSIs and management is refusing this.
• Management finally backed off of demanding that nurses pat down and wand patients for firearms. The fact that we could be nine months into negotiations before this occurred is unacceptable.

The Legacy Merger
• We need a legally binding MOU in place preventing changes to our working conditions as a result of the Legacy Merger, and giving us the right to reopen negotiations of key items if necessary.  We cannot agree to a 3-year union contract with no ability to solidly bargain while the acquisition of an entire medical system of 7 hospitals occurs.
• Without an MOU in place management may attempt to restructure entire clusters, buildings, and units to reconfigure them with the Legacy system. While management claims Legacy nurses will be the one’s to experience changes and not us, without an MOU in place, management maintains their rights under our Layoff article to take away AURN nurses jobs, and implement massive restructures moving entire units across the metro area. We already tentatively agreed to our Layoff article while management withheld information about this merger. We need the right to renegotiate that if needed.

Compensation
• Management claims they are offering us wages above Oregon hospitals (that are not Level 1 Trauma Research Hospitals). They have even produced an excel sheet to add the 15%, 4%, and 4% from their proposal. However, they have failed to calculate how far our night shift differential, call pay, float differential, and certification pay puts us behind hospitals all across Oregon and the west coast. It does not require an excel sheet to look in our paystubs and see how far behind we are. 
• Management refuses to provide retro pay for the wage increases that should have occurred July 1, 2023. They offered a bonus to not go on strike that was smaller than retro pay, but since have taken that back. While these wage increases were denied to us, OHSU executives have managed to accumulate $77.4 million surplus in 2023.

Other major unresolved issues:
• We need a proper two-tier shift incentive system. No more CNI complicated by MOV/VOM/CMOV/etc. We need clear and fair metrics in place for when the higher CNI+ incentive rates should be offered. Management is demanding the ability to give out higher rates to one cluster over another cluster for any reason, rather than a fair set of metrics.
• Our ED, PICU, and other key units are in full collapse where staffing keeps spiraling. With more than 50% of their staff positions on night shift filled by travelers, these units have not been able to rebuild. There are even times when new nurses and travelers are asked to be charge nurse because of the collapse of night shift. We must have a Unit Staffing Crisis Differential to help these units rebuild their staff. 
• Management refuses to stop using on-call nurses to cover baseline staffing. And they want even more units to become mandatory call units, while refusing to pay minimum wage for call time.
• Management already tried to violate our contract and establish a major program with an international travel agency to bring large numbers of international nurses to OHSU. The plan was put on hold or possibly cancelled. We need a guarantee this will not be attempted again without mutual agreement on the terms and conditions, so we can make sure our international nursing colleagues are not exploited.
• Management refuses to allow new nurses who are facing termination the right to file a grievance over racial discrimination, sexual harassment or other discriminatory behavior. This is morally reprehensible.
• Management refuses to guarantee in our contract that proper break relief will be provided for lactation needs.

We look forward to reaching the moment, where we can confidently notify our members that a fair and just tentative agreement has been reached.  And we need confidence that the agreement reached, is one we know our members will actually ratify.