04/13/2024
Springtime is full of many annual traditions in Portland. The crowds gather as the cherry trees blossom downtown, cycling enthusiasts prep their bikes for the Ladds 500, and OHSU’s union employees ready themselves for the annual turning out of pockets, where OHSU attempts to cool labor organizing by claiming they are too broke to fairly bargain. This is a very familiar song and dance for us, but as negotiations stall with the post-docs and our colleagues in AFSCME and APU prepare to hit the bargaining table, it’s important we address this as a bald-faced attempt to scare union workers out of demanding what we are worth.
In an email with all OHSU staff, Dr. Danny Jacobs alluded to “financial challenges” and a possibility that “reductions in force might be necessary.” Without any specific financial information, he paints a picture of an institution on the precipice of financial ruin, held together only by the CFO’s personal bow tie collection. Dr. Jacobs hoped our minds had slipped on the billion dollar merger with Legacy, a move with dubious benefit to our patients. In a recent Employee Benefits Council meeting CFO Lawrence Fuhrnstahl told your representatives that OHSU has to prioritize where it puts it’s money; that maintenance costs and benefits expansion are competing interests, and OHSU does not have the cash to provide benefits that work for our employees. He says this as rumors of dramatic increases in post-merger executive compensation begin to spread.
Fuhrnstahl is right. OHSU does need to prioritize where it puts its money. It needs to prioritize providing a benefit package so that our staff do not need to wait for specialty care! It needs to prioritize recruiting EVS staff so our patients can be admitted quickly! It needs to provide wage and benefits packages that attract CNAs, MAs and techs so our patients don’t need to wait for hours for a bath or a scan! It needs to prioritize investing in the grads, postdocs and staff who drive the research mission! OHSU needs to prioritize investing in the staff that makes this hospital run and not in the executives who have barely stepped foot in the hospital in the last 4 years! OHSU remains the most financially liquid hospital in the state and continues to rake in millions in “excess income” each year. They have the resources to invest in their staff and their patients. It’s their priorities that are broken. Our unions will continue to stand with the working people of OHSU to remind those executives who really runs this hospital.
