Bargaining Update 4/4/23

This week:

  • GRU proposes substantial changes to health insurance

  • GRU counters OHSU DEI proposal

  • OHSU rejectss GRU Contract Education Committee proposal

  • GRU and OHSU continue discussions on overpayments/underpayments and communications

  • Come to a bargaining team meet and greet + bargaining watch party April 18th! Join us while we propose an exciting financial package.

We had an exciting bargaining session on Tuesday! We proposed substantial changes to GRs health insurance. Having heard from several GRs about the problems with the current health insurance, particularly those that used to be employees at OHSU, we proposed insurance that is the same or substantially similar to the insurance offered to other union-represented employees. We also countered OHSU’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion proposal in order to ensure GRs who are subject to harassment and discrimination have a say in how their cases are handled.

OHSU countered our proposal for a Contract Education Committee, as they did not want to be formally held accountable for misinformation, and preferred for those matters to be handled on an informal basis through a Labor Management Committee. OHSU also countered our proposal on overpayments. OHSU did not want the responsibility of informing GRs that they can receive union assistance when they are overpaid, and they did not want to be held accountable for continuous overpayments once they had been notified of the error. Although we were frustrated by this response, we do believe we are close to reaching an agreement on this matter. We are also still in discussions on how best to ensure we can communicate with our membership via email, and we believe we are also very close to reaching an agreement on this as well.

If you want to meet the bargaining team or learn more about bargaining join us for a bargaining team Meet and Greet + Watch party on April 18th at KCRB 6111. Meet the bargaining team (and have some snacks) from 10:30 am - 11:30 am and then watch the action from 12:00 pm onwards (we will bring the popcorn!) This will be a very important bargaining session to watch as we will be proposing an exciting financial package!

As always, the easiest way to support our union as we move into proposals around wage increases is to join today. It only takes about 30 seconds.

In solidarity

Your GRU Bargaining Team

Adrian Baris, Raphael Kirchgäßner, JD Russo, and Austin Wright