To make a long story short: OHSU’s bargaining team walked out of mediation today. They rejected the entirety of our outstanding proposals. They do not have a counter. They have not scheduled another session.
Mediation ended abruptly after we exchanged proposals on International Rights, Benefits, Wages, Time Off, DEI, and Strikes and Lockouts. OHSU proposed a 5-year contract with no guaranteed pay increases, and made movement only by offering up to $5,000 to cover visa fees for international postdocs and providing a computer for every postdoc. Despite this insulting offer, we spent four hours carefully considering our own concessions (in childcare stipends, travel reimbursements, and pilot funding for postdocs from underrepresented backgrounds, and wage minima), to demonstrate our willingness to negotiate in good faith and to foreground the cost of living increases that we all need. However, after receiving our proposals, OHSU rejected everything in its entirety.
We are not done bargaining, but OHSU needs to hear your voices: the voices of the postdoctoral researchers who make science happen at OHSU. Any movement that happens from here will happen because of the actions we take as a group. We know that you’ve probably read Peter Barr-Gillespe’s budget forecast about “making difficult choices about what we invest in.” They have made it clear that the researchers who conduct the highest levels of science at OHSU are not in their investment list. We are going to continue fighting to get you a fair contract and have events planned to show OHSU that researchers here know what we are worth. We are calling on ALL postdocs to join us at an urgent rally (details below) at Mac Hall next Wednesday.
