Bargaining Update - 1.8.26

OHSU Research Workers United Bargaining Summary - January 8th, 2026

Join us next week (January 13th-15th) at one of our virtual Strike Town Halls, details below!

RWU and OHSU met for the first bargaining session of 2026 on January 7th. This is the second session following our declaration of impasse in December, and the new year has unfortunately not brought any significant progress from management despite the encouraging news regarding the preservation of NIH funding for OHSU’s indirect costs. RWU received a revised OHSU economic proposal in the morning with some minor improvements, but the language still fell far short of what we could confidently present to our membership.

RWU has never compromised on our ultimate goal of winning a contract we’re proud of, but we’ve had to modify our strategies. While previous proposals aimed to implement progressively scaled wage increases based on classification, this was struck down in every revision OHSU returned to us in favor of flat percent increases. Instead, we were able to make mutual progress through across-the-board increases defined as the greater of a flat percent or a dollar-per-hour increase, as seen in many of Local 328’s contracts. We’ve also gotten some encouraging signals from management on their willingness to implement new minimum wages for all researchers. In response, we’ve shifted our most recent proposal to focus more on these minimums, which would still have the effect of lifting up wages for our lowest paid members - a top priority for the bargaining team. Our most recent proposal would lift the minimum wage for all research workers to $24/hour by the third year of the contract.

Despite our considerable efforts to meet OHSU halfway where possible, they were unwilling to make any progress throughout the day. This has forced the bargaining team to move forward with a strike authorization vote (details below). Only members will be eligible to participate in this strike authorization vote - if you have not yet signed a membership card you can do so here. You can compare the current positions and see what RWU has already won for research workers here.

Let us be clear: we still hope to avoid a strike, and will continue to bargain in good faith. But management’s unwillingness to offer fair wage increases has forced us to move forward with a strike authorization vote. We need a credible strike threat and the willingness to withhold our labor to convince OHSU to step up and pay us what we deserve!

OHSU insists that “research should be self-sufficient”, despite the fact that OHSU is one institution and research is one third of its mission. In 2023, OHSU found money to raise research worker’s wages by up to 25% through a series of market adjustments; yet there were very few layoffs during that time. Management told us at the table that that is because OHSU allowed departments to overspend their budgets so that they could absorb those wage increases; there is nothing stopping them from doing the same to get researchers closer to a living wage and settle a fair contract now! In 2024, when the postdocs ratified their first contract, OHSU also stepped in and covered part of their first year wage increase despite previously declaring that it would not be possible.

We will hold a series of remote strike town halls next week: January 13th, 14th and 15th at both noon and 5:30pm to make sure that researchers have multiple opportunities to ask their questions.

Strike Town Hall Zoom link (for use at all town halls next week):

https://oregonafscme-org.zoom.us/j/89780402171?pwd=tavgKasj3pfYArnwXCJXRmSf9duEk2.1

We will have our strike authorization vote from January 20th-29th.

To reiterate, only members can vote, so you can sign up here if you are not currently a member. Members will receive a personalized email with a secure one-time voting link when the strike authorization vote opens on January 20th. More information will be shared at the strike town halls and in upcoming updates ahead of the vote. We want to make sure that you have all of the information needed in advance.

Strike Escalation reminders:
 

• Our union siblings on the AFSCME Council 75 Executive Board have graciously approved a $100k strike hardship fund for RWU in the event that it is needed! More details on guidelines, eligibility, and other fundraising to follow in the coming weeks.
• We will also continue to update our Strike FAQ here.

ULP Settlement reminders:

• As part of a settlement around the Unfair Labor Practice (ULP) that RWU filed against OHSU, Researchers received a one-time lump sum payment of $1,200 for FTEs of 0.5 (half-time) or higher and $500 for FTEs of less than 0.5 FTE! We are still negotiating raises as part of our contract, this payment is to offset wages lost since October! The settlement amounts are higher than what employees would have received between September 22, 2025 and the end of the year if they had received the 2% wage increase during that time. According to the signed settlement (view here), this one-time lump sum payment was paid to Researchers on January 2nd. Please check to make sure that you received it!

Bargaining reminders:

• Our RWU bargaining team will be in mediated bargaining again on Friday, January 30th. As we've said before, our strike authorization vote matters a lot! In fact, it is more impactful than any other task we've shared with you during bargaining!

More soon,

Your RWU bargaining team:

Lynne Swarbrick

Wes Horton

Lillian Raley

Victoria Halls

Caitlin Burbank

Anna Levy

Cort Cox

Henry Harrison