On Wednesday, June 14, members of the Oregon Health & Science University and Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) bargaining teams met virtually to continue exchanging proposals.   

OHSU presented its economic counterproposals in the morning, after which mediation formally began. The parties had several discussions with the mediator and a brief joint session in the afternoon. It was a productive start to mediation. 

OHSU’s Second Economic Proposals 

As promised, OHSU provided its response to ONA’s May 24 economic proposal. OHSU provided its response in three parts: a package containing core economics, another package regarding resource nurses and a non-packaged selection of economic items that we are seeking to tentatively agree to separately.  As a reminder, when proposals are packaged, no item can be agreed to individually; rather the whole package must be accepted.  Highlights from the three OHSU economic proposals fall into five categories – items in bold are changes or new items compared with OHSU’s prior economic proposal:  

• Wages (Appendix A) Across-the-board wage increases: OHSU is proposing across-the-board wage increases of 7% for 2023, 3.5% for 2024, and 3% for 2025. 
• (Article 5.9) Year of Service: No pause in accrual of years-of-service for leave less than 90 days (was 15 days)  

Differentials and Premium Pay  

• (Article 10.2.2) Night Shift Differential: Increase night shift differential by approximately 14% to $7/hour  
• (Article 10.1) Charge Nurse: Increase charge nurse differential from $3.75 to $4.25/hour  
• (Article 10.5) Preceptor: Increase preceptor differential by 50% to $3/hour, and expand eligibility to an assignment teaching any student  
• (Article 21.7) Certification Pay: Increase certification bonus by 20% to $3,000/year 
• (Article 10.3) Call: Increase call pay from $4.75 to $5/hour  
• (Article 9.3.1) Double time when called in to work on a holiday  
• (Article 9.3.3) Double call pay when on call on a holiday  
• (Article 9.3.2) Employees on call who are required to respond to clinically work-related telephone calls eligible for doubleback  
• (New) Prescheduled incentive: $40/hour available for nurses who sign up and work shifts beyond their regularly scheduled shifts in the next scheduled period 
• (Article 10.11) Critical Need Incentive (CNI): Increase CNI rate 50% from $20/hour to $30/hour  
• (Article 10.7) PANDA Transport: Provide PANDA transport team nurses with $5/hour differential  
• (Article 21.9) Graduate Benefit: Increase funds available for graduate benefit subsidy by 40% to $350,000/year, and decrease percentage paid by the nurse by 5%  
• (Article 10.9) Specialty Float Pool Differential: Remove 0.75 FTE requirement for specialty float pool differential, so all FTE RNs in the specialty float pools receive the $8/hour differential  

Ambulatory 

• (Article 10.2.1) Evening Shift: Outpatient nurses eligible for evening differential starting at 3 p.m. (versus 5:30 p.m.)  
• (Article 10.8) Float Differential: CHO nurses eligible for float differential for floating out of their primary org  

Resource Nurses 

• (Article 10.11) Critical Need Incentive: Resource RNs eligible to receive CNI if they meet eligibility criteria  
• (Article 7.2.2) Order of Scheduling: Resource RNs scheduled before Travelers 
• (Article 21.6) Staff Development Educational Leave Hours: Increase pool of educational hours for resource RNs by 25% to 1,000 hours  
• (Article 5.9) Remove requirement to work 1,040 hours for a Year of Service (credit toward next vacation tier). This impacts 88% of resource RNs.  
• (Article 24.3) Compensation. Resource nurses working more than 48 or 60 hours in a pay period would see an increased differential of 10% (up from 7%) or 7% (up from 5%), respectively. 

OHSU’s proposed economic package takes into consideration the latest financial data. OHSU’s total salaries and benefits for the last full fiscal year FY22 (June-2022) was $2.49 billion. OHSU’s total operating revenues were $3.99 billion, offset by total operating expenses of $4.08 billion, which resulted in a $90 million operating loss for the fiscal year.   

For reference, ONA’s May 24 economic package would cost more than $360 million over two years, equivalent to more than a 56% wage increase per nurse in year 1 and an 89% overall wage increase per nurse over two years. 

Mediation 

After OHSU’s presentation of its morning proposals, mediation began. Mediation is a routine part of the collective bargaining process where a neutral third party works with both parties to facilitate reaching an agreement. The parties had separate conversations with the mediator in the afternoon on various subjects and a second joint session to discuss Article 15 – leaves, as well as their plan for upcoming sessions. Mediation will resume on Tuesday, June 20.    

Tentative Agreement 

The parties did not reach any tentative agreements yesterday. 

Going forward 

Mediation scheduled for Tuesday, June 20, 2023 will be held at ONA's offices. In addition, we have a regular bargaining session next week scheduled on Wednesday, June 21, without the mediator.