AURN fighting for workplace safety, management asserts that not everyone should have CNI

We met for our sixth bargaining session Wednesday, Feb. 1 at our ONA office in Tualatin. Members from departments across OHSU came to observe and support our bargaining team. They heard our opening statements about the importance of having new and improved workplace violence prevention language in our contract. Our AURN President Elisa Youngman shared with management, “When events occur that impact a patient’s safety, such as a fall, pressure ulcers, or nosocomial infection, we call it a “never event”. It is time we start treating events that impact a nurse’s safety, such as death threats, physical assault, and hate crimes as “never events”.”

Initially, the bargaining day felt productive. We felt supported and energized by our members’ presence however by the end, we felt unappreciated due to management’s Shift Incentives Proposal. We have proved our dedication to OHSU during the ongoing pandemic, dire staffing crises and much more, working endless overtime and extra shifts to keep the hospital afloat. In response they presented a regressive proposal that felt disrespectful to our contributions. At the core of their proposal, management wants more power to determine if and when they offer increased CNI, and to offer increased rates differently for one department or shift over another. For example, under their proposal management could decide to give one unit or cluster $50 CNI for months on end, while another could be kept at $25 CNI even if both were equally short staffed. This is a real risk, as we’ve already seen management give MOV and other incentives to some units and clusters over others, while all units are unsafely staffed. Additionally, if units throughout the hospital are not prioritized to fill shifts, that impacts everyone else as patients are boarded and throughput is impacted. When asked why management wants more discretion regarding CNI, they responded that “currently some are getting CNI who shouldn’t”. If this is an issue you feel strongly about, please let your Contract Action Team (CAT) members know and find out how to get more involved! We are launching a petition to make sure management knows we stand together and will not be divided, be sure you and all AURN members sign it as soon as possible. Or sign up now to get trained to become a CAT member. It’s time to stand together to show management how important these negotiations are to everyone.

Summary of Proposals:

AURN’s Workplace Health & Safety
We opened Article 26, Health and Safety, by adding a significant amount of new language to address the massive amount of safety issues that so many of us experience. We proposed the formation of a new Nursing Health and Safety Committee, that would give nurses a voice in safety measures at OHSU. This committee would include frontline nurses and members of management and would develop directives and recommendations related to workplace violence, infectious diseases, chemical hazards, security and physical safety, education and the development of signage addressing workplace violence. Additionally, we added language to support in-person workplace violence prevention training, access to copies of OSHA/Worker and Student Injury Reporting System reports, assessment of unit geography and patient population, and much more.

• We added a section related to suicide prevention resources and awareness, which includes 24/7 immediate crisis intervention through the Employee Assistance Program (EAP).

• To further imprint the importance of nurse safety, we added a section for the emergency department addressing the need for consistent DPS presence and that every patient/visitor should be scanned by the metal detector every time they enter, including patients that arrive by ambulance (via wand as soon as is feasible).

• For other parts of the hospital, we added a section that requires proper staffing for code greens 24/7, which includes specially trained social workers, cognitive behavioral nurses, and case management nurses. We added a definition for code green that will expand it to mean any behavioral incidents involving violence or immediate precursors to violence, regardless of their form.

• To appropriately help nurses who experienced workplace violence, we added that a root cause analysis would occur where all involved parties would be invited to participate. For those who need time off after being assaulted, we added that the nurse could receive the rest of their shift off and an additional 3 days of paid time to explore workers' compensation and other needs.

Management’s Shift Incentive Proposal
Management finally gave us a response on CNI & shift incentives.
• They are proposing $25 for CNI, and $35 for a special advanced CNI, however, they proposed that they should get full discretion on which shifts, units, and clusters would qualify for higher rates of CNI for any length of time. This would allow them to give $50 or even $100 CNI to one unit or cluster while only giving $25 to another unit for any length of time.

• OHSU management was clear they don’t want resource nurses to qualify for CNI, but they offered that those nurses could pick up additional shifts above their minimum required shifts (MRS) without a financial incentive.

• They only want to define a shift as 8 hours rather than 4 hours for increased CNI.

• Nurses must work 4 extra shifts in a schedule to get the increased CNI.

• When asked about fairness about which departments would receive CNI, management said “currently some departments are getting CNI that shouldn’t”.

Our nurses in the bargaining room were disappointed to see a proposal like this being presented. As more members talk about it, we are hearing widespread frustration around this issue of how to fairly compensate nurses for their significant contributions to work extra shifts to properly staff our units.

Kirk Constantine from the Critical Care Float Pool stated: “Fairness is very important to me. When acute care and ambulatory were not receiving CNI, but our EDs and ICUs were, many of our members were angry and frustrated. The ED nurses need the borders to be placed in the hospital. This proposal does not help with throughput and isn’t a realistic approach to supporting our patients throughout their care. How is this going to help better staff our units? We will not let OHSU divide our nurses.”

Article 15 & 18 Management Counter Proposals
Management also presented us responses to proposals that we made on Article 15- Leaves of Absence and Article 18- Seniority. They partially accepted our changes to jury service, confirming that jury duty absences will not count as an occurrence. They accepted our changes to the Peace Corps section, accepting a 27-month absence without pay, which is in compliance with the Peace Corps. They also largely accepted language we proposed regarding domestic violence and expanded the section by calling it “Leave and Protections for Victims of Certain Crimes”. They added that bereavement leave cannot rollover to the next calendar year nor be cashed out. While we are appreciative of the movement made here, these are mostly smaller changes.