It’s past time for a new AURN contract and a new OHSU. It’s time to vote to strike.
So much is at stake in these negotiations, and we hope everyone has had a chance to learn about where things stand. Please read our last bargaining update if you haven’t already. As of today, 93% of all AURN-represented nurses took part in our strike survey pledge, and 97% pledged to go on strike. With these pledges, an official vote is now being held.
Our bargaining team is recommending all AURN-represented nurses vote YES to authorize a strike. Voting no means that you will accept management’s current offer. See the side-by-side for where things stand and the Strike FAQ for additional questions.
If you are ready to vote to authorize the bargaining team to call a strike, please do so as soon as you receive your ballot.
If you have remaining questions, please reach out to a Contract Action Team (CAT) member, bargaining team member or labor representative right away. If you don’t know who that is, email aurnlaborreps@oregonrn.org.
Voting will remain open until September 17; however, we will be in mediation September 13, 14, and 15 and are asking all members to vote as soon as possible, so that we can enter mediation knowing where nearly all of you stand.
Please watch for your ballot from Election Buddy (invitations@mail.electionbuddy.com).
If you or someone you know did not not receive a ballot at 0500 Wednesday please go here.
For those with any remaining questions, we want to be clear: without an overwhelming vote in favor of a strike, we will not be able to reach a fair agreement. The current final offer and all proposals from management have not resulted in us reaching a fair agreement. And now we are facing the $1,500,000,000 acquisition of Legacy Health Systems without agreement on a fair reopener to negotiate the massive impacts on our members. Currently, management has discretion to layoff, restructure, and relocate nurses across the metro area and beyond. We need guarantees to protect our members.
While it might look like we’re close on wages in Year 1, we still have a lot to fight for on differentials that are critical to safe staffing.
We’ve fought for percentage-based differentials for good reason—nurses should be compensated appropriately for their experience, which flat dollar rates ignore. The table below shows a breakdown of how a 15-year night-shift nurse (BSN) would be paid under our proposal and management’s proposal in Year 1. In this example, this nurse would receive a 22% night-shift differential, or an hourly rate of $15.15, more than double what management has offered. They would also receive a 5% certification differential, or $7,161 in total annually, also more than double what management has proposed.
Over the first year of the contract, our proposal would have this nurse earning $20,000 more than what management has offered. Keep in mind that management has also rejected retro payments. Our proposal includes full retropay on base wages back to July 1, 2023. This nurse would receive a retro payment of about $5,000 (based on a retro period from July 1 through Sept. 30).
The table above does not include all the other differences, such as $4.25 for charge nurse differential vs. our proposed 11%. Precepting at $3 vs. 6%. Or our CNI proposal of $46 vs. management’s offer of $30, which is nearly $200 lost for every CNI shift under management’s proposal. If you work ten CNI shifts per year, it’s nearly $2000 that’s at stake (20 CNI shifts is $4000). While management has historically paid nurses a higher base wage than everyone else in Oregon, we have ended up in total below, due to our differentials falling behind most hospitals in Oregon. Management’s offer doesn’t even keep up with lower-level hospitals.
Our proposal would also put us ahead of St. Charles Bend and Providence Portland Medical Center on base wages. Let’s take an example. In the first year, a full-time nurse at top step (BSN) would earn $6,157 more than a nurse at top step at St. Charles Bend and $15,000 more than a nurse at top step at PPMC without including differentials. In Year 2, we proposed an additional step at the top of the scale, so in addition to the 8% increase to the scale that we proposed, a nurse at top step would be eligible to advance a step.
There’s no guarantee that we’ll win what we’ve proposed, but it’s worth fighting for. Based on what we’ve proposed on base wages, a nurse at top step would earn around $40,000 more than what a nurse at top step would earn at St. Charles Bend over 3 years and $40,000 more than what a nurse at top step would earn at PPMC over 2 years.
We know how important wages, differentials, staffing, and safety are to all nurses. And we are standing united to make major progress on every priority. We are fighting for wage increases that will put us above everyone else in Oregon and help us take a huge step towards catching up with our Trauma 1 Research Hospital peers. We are finally getting the 30-step wage scale we've waited decades to get. We knew before this campaign started, we would not catch up to UC Davis in one contract, but we are committed to closing the gap.
We are committed to building a union that will fight every single contract cycle, not just this year. We are building something that is permanent. Solidarity and the willingness to fight back lives in every single person, it's not a fleeting moment. Our members aren't going to accept the status quo and are going to remain engaged for years to come.
Our members do NOT want to go on strike but will if they have to! We are going to try to get a deal that includes huge increases in compensation the best safe staffing and workplace safety protections of any contract in the state, quite possibly the nation. We won't settle without the right to reopen our contract and negotiate any changes coming with the Legacy merger.
We can no longer accept the status quo.
Let’s show management that we’ve turned a corner and will not accept the current conditions another month, another week, another shift.
We stand together now.
Review the Strike Manual
Blog Home
All Blogs
RSS
