Since last December, the Oregon Health & Science University and Oregon Nurses Association bargaining teams have been working toward a new agreement. On Aug. 10, ONA declared impasse, and with impasse declared, each party submits its Final Offer to the state mediator within 7 days, Wednesday, Aug. 16.  

The Final Offer OHSU submitted to the mediator includes substantial wage increases that would establish market-leading wages for ONA-represented nurses. In addition to wage increases, OHSU’s offer has enhanced staffing (including a commitment to provide meal and break relief), educational benefits, improvements to safety and security, grants to support equity and anti-racist work, and a ratification bonus. 

OHSU cares deeply about our nurses. Our final offer includes many enhancements that demonstrate our commitment to supporting and investing in our nurses.  Highlights from the Final Offer, which includes many additional benefits, include:

• Increased across-the-board wages: 
  • Year 1: 7% plus $3.75 per hour 
  • Year 2: 4%  
  • Year 3: 4%  
• Ratification bonus of $3,000 (0.5 FTE and above) and $1,500 (resource nurses and below 0.5 FTE) if tentative agreement is reached 
• A commitment to provide meal and rest break relief hours 
• Expanded night shift hours of 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. and removed the distinction between inpatient and outpatient settings for evening shift hours 
• New prescheduled incentive of $46/hr available for regular nurses who commit to and work shifts beyond their FTE in the next schedule period  
• Expanded supplemental call incentive of $19/hr (and supplemental call-plus of $28/hr) to all mandatory call units for difficult to fill shifts  
• Increased differential rates and premiums for: 
  • Night shift  
  • Preceptor
  • CNI
  • Certification pay
  • Bilingual differential
  • Call
  • PANDA transport
  • Resource nurses exceeding certain hour thresholds
• Scheduling resource nurses before travelers  
• Increased eligibility for resource nurses for incentives
• New justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion (JEDI) grant that provides paid time to work on justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion projects
• Commitment to a comprehensive safety assessment and at least a $3 million investment in safety and security improvements
• Expanded nurse presence on committees including those related to safety
• Before the nurse-to-patient ratios in the hospital staffing law go into effect, OHSU has committed to using nationally recognized professional standards for nurse staffing.
• Work-related telephone calls are eligible for doubleback
• Removed the 0.75 FTE eligibility requirement for regular nurses to receive the maximum specialty float pool differential
• Double time for on-call hours worked on a holiday.
• Increased education leave per benefited RN by 50%
• Increased yearly vacation cashout maximum by 50% to 150 hours
• Improved graduate education benefit by increasing funds available and decreasing employee portion of tuition cost 

Increased across-the-board wages: The proposed increase would be 7% plus $3.75 per hour increase, effective the start of the second full pay period following ratification. In year two ONA represented nurses would receive another 4% increase the first full pay period after July 1, 2024 and in year three they would receive a 4% pay increase the first full pay period after July 1, 2025.   

The year one across-the-board increase equates to base wage increases spanning from 12.5% to 15.4%, and will establish OHSU as the market leader for nurse wages in the Portland market. Further, it will result in the highest base wage in the state of Oregon for many of our ONA represented BSN nurses. For example, in the first year of the contract, the base wage for BSN nurses with 10 years of experience will be $64.27 per hour, while the base wage for BSN nurses with the highest level of experience will be $76.66—both are the highest in Oregon. 

This is a historic wage increase for OHSU nurses and far exceeds any previously negotiated base wage increases. 

Ratification bonus: All ONA represented nurses would receive a ratification bonus, contingent on approval of a contract without a strike. The amount of this bonus is determined by FTE, with nurses receiving $3,000 (0.5 FTE and above) and $1,500 (resource nurses and below 0.5 FTE) 

Increased shift differential and premium pay: OHSU’s Final Offer includes the following pay increases: 

• Nurses working night shift from 7 p.m. to 7 a.m. would receive increased night shift differential of $7.00/hr  
• Increased charge nurse differential  
• Increased preceptor differential 
• Increased call pay 
• Increased surgical services coordinator pay 
• New prescheduled incentive of $46/hr available for nurses who commit to working shifts beyond their FTE in the next schedule period  
• Increased CNI rate by 50% from $20/hr to $30/hr  
• Provide PANDA transport team nurses with $5.00/hr differential on all hours worked 
• Remove 0.75 FTE requirement for specialty float pool differential, so that all FTE RNs in the specialty float pool receive the $8/hr differential   

Improvements to on-call: OHSU is proposing expanding supplemental call incentive shift pay to all mandatory call units for difficult-to-fill shifts at a rate of $19/hr (with supplemental call-plus at $28/hr), increasing call pay from $4.75 to $5.00/hr, removing doubleback exception for nurses called in within three hours of the start of their regularly scheduled shift, providing double time when called in to work on a holiday, double call pay when on call on a holiday and increasing eligibility for doubleback for nurses required to respond to clinically work-related telephone calls. 

Improvements to safety and security: OHSU is proposing a comprehensive third-party safety and security assessment, with $3 million commitment in spending on recommendations before successor CBA expires to support the safety and security of nurses. OHSU is also proposing to increase nurse participation on OHSU committees related to safety, expand de-escalation and other safety training, make commitments related to security screenings and DPS scheduling in the Emergency Department, and make commitments to staff the Code Green Team 24/7 and to train on the process for emergency lock downs.    

Improvements to justice, equity, diversity and inclusion efforts: In order to achieve meaningful and systemic change, OHSU is proposing the creation of a new grant of paid hours for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion efforts by nurses.  A new committee would administer the grant by accepting project proposals from nurses and granting paid hours to work on projects.    

Improvements to staffing and meal/rest break coverage: Until patient-to-nurse ratios from Oregon’s new hospital staffing law go into effect, OHSU would commit to relying on nationally recognized professional standards of nurse staffing for minimum safe standards. OHSU proposes to change the way it ensures rest and meal coverage earlier than required by the new state staffing law and to provide additional hours of break coverage to help ensure that nurses are able to take their breaks.

Increased education and training hours: OHSU recognizes that education, training and certification maintenance are critically important for our ONA represented nurses. This is why OHSU is proposing to increase education leave per benefitted RN by 50%, to 24 hours/fiscal yr, and increase pool of discretionary educational hours for conferences by 14% to 1600 hours and increasing funds available for graduate benefit subsidy by 40% to $350,000/yr, and decrease percentage paid by the nurse by 5%. Additionally, OHSU will increase the pool of educational hours for resource RNs by 25% to 1000 hours. These hours may also be used to maintain certifications.  

Increased bonuses for certification and bilingual language skills: To support nurses in the acquisition of certifications and the use of bilingual language skills at work the certification bonus will increase by 20% to $3000/yr and increase the bilingual bonus from $1,000 to $3,000/yr. 

Increased preceptor support: OHSU recognizes that preceptors are critical in training nurses and helping them attain higher levels of professional competency. This is why OHSU is proposing an increase in preceptor differential by 50% to $3.00/hr, and expand eligibility to an assignment teaching any student. 

Next steps

Final Offers represent the next phase of bargaining. A submission of a Final Offer is required by law after an impasse is declared. ONA is also required to submit their Final Offer. The posting of the offers is followed by a 30-day “cooling off period,” as required by law. During this “cooling off” period, OHSU and ONA bargaining teams will continue to meet. Continued mediation has been scheduled for Aug. 23, Sept. 13, Sept.14, and Sept. 15.   

OHSU will continue bargaining in good faith, and hopes that the teams will be able to come to an agreement. OHSU values its partnership with ONA, and remains committed to paying market-leading wages and providing key supports to OHSU nurses. OHSU looks forward to returning to the bargaining table soon, and moving forward with a new contract with our nurses.