While what management has dubbed “crisis mode” over financial losses is already serious, Oregon Health and Science University now has another problem. About 7,400 respiratory therapists, pharmacists and other employees voted overwhelmingly on Friday to give the negotiating team the power to call a strike.

About 94% of the workers represented by AFSCME Local 328 voted to approve the strike. The two sides have been in negotiations since February.

“Our members are fed up,” said Michael Stewart, a medical assistant at OHSU’s medical clinic and president of Local 328. We have made significant contributions throughout the pandemic, but we are calling on OHSU to invest in our employees in staffing, retention and coping with the high cost of living. “

Workers are demanding an across-the-board wage increase of 7% to 8% annually over the next three years. Today, Local 328 members earn between $15 and $70 an hour.

A strike is not a certainty. The union must notify OHSU he 10 days before the start of the strike.

A strike vote is taken when OHSU management implements a plan to cut costs in the face of heavy losses. Financial institutions lost him $77 million in the first 11 months of the 2022 fiscal year.

The losses stem from the same set of pandemic-related circumstances that have put many other hospitals in Oregon under similar financial constraints. Exhausted by the pandemic, nurses and many other caregivers have quit or taken on less stressful jobs. As a result, OHSU and other hospitals have had to pay exorbitant premiums to temporary workers.

The normal flow of patients, from emergency rooms to hospital beds to skilled nursing facilities for rehabilitation, is completely bogged down by staff shortages.

The final result of OHSU is not good. The OHSU Board is currently considering budget cuts for 2023. The largest of the proposed adjustments is a $70 million reduction in the capital budget, from $180 million to $110 million.

OHSU President Danny Jacobs said: “We will do everything we can to avoid major layoffs.

In a statement, OHSU said it hoped the strike would be averted and that both sides could agree “a new contract that reflects our shared goals of a safe, healthy and respectful working environment”.

AFSCME Local 328 represents employees in over 300 occupations, including environmental services technicians, respiratory therapists, financial analysts, laboratory animal technicians, chaplains, web engineers, and pharmacists.

— Jeff Manning; jmanning@oregonian.com; 503-294-7606

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