We met for mediation today (April 16th) with OHSU at 9:30am. We received OHSU’s first proposal at 1pm, which showed improvements in vacation time. We believe this movement was a direct result of the action taken by our unit in recent weeks including the Pop-up protest and today’s Picket, and our insistence that OHSU Postdocs deserve time off that is commensurate with the time given to other employee groups at OHSU. Unfortunately, OHSU has not made substantial movement on any other proposals including wages, international affairs, career development, benefits (including child care), and income reporting (W2 vs 1099). Notably, OHSU fully rejected our Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion article. We responded to the remaining proposals with creative solutions to bridge the gap between OHSU’s status quo stance and what we feel would best benefit our unit. OHSU returned at 7pm with only two counter proposals that we reached a tentative agreement on:

• Career development (TA'd) — 10 protected career development days to all postdocs that do not require you to use PTO.
• Modified Operations (TA'd) — Provided protections to Postdocs who are unable to safely report to work during severe weather or unforeseeable transportation disruptions.

We have a second mediation session scheduled in May. We are confident that the progress we made in mediation, albeit slight, is attributed to your presence yesterday. OHSU has given no indication that they will move on any economic proposals, and we don’t expect they will without major pressure from our membership. We maintain the priority that wages and benefits are equitable across postdocs at OHSU and commensurate with the value of our work. We will be planning escalating actions over the next month as we prepare for our second mediation - plan to join us in support!