Ry Dennis here - Happy New Year from your RWU Bargaining Council!

The RWU bargaining team met briefly but productively yesterday with management. We started 2025 with a TA on Health and Safety. OHSU management made two proposals with Parking and Transportation and Retirement and both parties took advantage of returning back from break to make the most of caucus time in crafting more counters and proposals.

Parking and Transportation: This proposal used mostly standard language from other contracts. This includes:

• Allowing our union 30 days to provide input on any parking cost changes.
• Giving RWU a seat on the committee that decides transportation policy.
• Solidifying the availability of annual Trimet passes, first year for $25 and each subsequent year for $50.

While parking is a hot commodity at most OHSU campuses, with parking demand exceeding capacity in most lots, there is currently not much flexibility for parking and transportation policy right now. Parking policy is decided by the committee and applies to people from not just RWU but all OHSU employees. Regardless, the bargaining team will review the proposal more and look for where changes can be made.

Retirement: OHSU management used language from the Local 328 contract. Currently, employees must choose between Oregon Public Service Retirement Plan (OPSRP) or University Pension Plan (UPP). Some employees are also in the Public Employee Retirement System (PERS) and in 2017, the contribution to employee retirement accounts decreased. The bargaining team will review the proposal more and be sure moving forward that there are at least carveouts to accommodate the Researchers that are grandfathered in to the earlier PERS benefits offered at OHSU while advocating for parity for other Researchers during negotiations in the coming months. 

Other reminders:

• You can view the latest copies of the current tentatively agreed upon articles through the RWU website here.

Upcoming important dates:

• The next bargaining session is on Thursday, January 23rd from 1-5pm. As a reminder, you can observe all bargaining sessions at the RWU-created Webex link below.

• Our next RWU General Union meeting will be held virtually on Wednesday, January 15th at 5:30PM. Please RSVP at this Zoom link.

Bargaining Session Observation Link:
https://ohsu.webex.com/ohsu/j.php?MTID=ma1a89de4c1b53e3209ae8aaeb8218598

Meeting Number:
2867 749 7423

Meeting Password:
G5Tm3D2ZmgQ

Join from a video or application:
Dial [email protected]

You can also dial 173.243.2.68 and enter your meeting number.Join by phone:
+1-503-388-9555

Toll Access code: 28677497423

Global call-in numbers:
https://ohsu.webex.com/ohsu/globalcallin.php?MTID=mde484d4fd69e728b416856acd57b247e

Your RWU Bargaining Team,

Henry Harrison

Lynne Swarbrick

Victoria Halls

Lillian Raley

Wes Horton

Cort Cox

Anna Levy

Caitlin Burbank