On Monday, July 31st, our bargaining team will begin our first session of mediation.  This means that a mediator from the State of Oregon Employment Review Board will be be joining bargaining to help us reach a tentative agreement with OHSU.

Let's be very clear: reaching a compromise will be difficult.  We have heard our members tell us, loud and clear, what you need to survive in the city of Portland. We've tried to explain at the bargaining table the financial stress we are under, that we are going backwards month after month, that we are one emergency away from financial crisis. Management has not heard us. Instead, they have held fast to a proposal for a 4% pay increase for the coming academic year, even though we are some of the lowest paid workers at OHSU, even though other groups have received substantially larger increases. Along the way, we've been subject to derisive comments from management's spokesperson, implying that we are lucky to get paid at all for "sitting around in class all day." Such comments make it clear that our work is neither understood nor considered particularly valuable.

If we want OHSU to take us seriously and value our work appropriately, the time has come for us to show up in support of our bargaining team to tell OHSU we will not put up with being ignored or undervalued. 

If you support your bargaining team's proposal for a $40k a year salary, please join our picket on July 31st at noon. As our team meets with management and the mediator inside, we'll be gathering outside CHH2.  We'll have signs and water, just bring yourself and your GRU t-shirt.  Let's make sure management can hear us inside.