We, the undersigned—including AFSCME Local 328 members, colleagues, patients, families, and community supporters—are calling on OHSU to settle a fair contract with the more than 8,000 union members who keep this hospital and university running.

For eleven months, Local 328 has bargained in good faith. Workers have been laboring under an expired contract since July. The union’s first economic proposal, delivered in April, included raising the lowest-paid employees to a living wage for Portland, affecting nearly 2,000 workers. They also proposed fair raises for those above that threshold, corrections to salary language that denies differentials, guaranteed lunch breaks for salaried shift workers, and protections for essential benefits.

OHSU did not respond to that proposal until the end of June—just days before the contract expired—and offered only a $1-per-hour increase. This was not a serious response. For thousands of workers already struggling to afford food, childcare, housing, and basic necessities, it was an insult.

Because of Portland’s high cost of living and inadequate wages, many OHSU workers cannot afford to live in the community they serve. Through a pandemic, record inflation, and leadership turnover, these workers have kept OHSU running. They continued carrying out all three missions of this institution even as management ignored worsening staffing shortages and unsafe work environments.

Without the labor of AFSCME Local 328 members, OHSU would not have:
• Clean operating rooms
• Nutritious meals for patients and staff
• Spiritual care for patients
• Heat, safe facilities, and critical IT infrastructure
• Insurance authorization processing
• Efficient patient scheduling
• Inpatient and outpatient rehabilitation
• Respiratory care, including Pediatric and Neonatal Transport (PANDA)
• Functioning and reliable essential hospital equipment
• World-leading biomedical research

While frontline workers perform this vital work, leadership has cycled through controversy, lawsuits, layoffs, and repeated investigations—often earning more in a few years than many long-time employees will see in their entire careers. OHSU’s most recent economic proposal still fails to meet the needs of the workforce that keeps this institution functioning.

Every day without a contract is another day OHSU avoids paying living wages. We stand with the workers who have now voted to authorize a strike should it become necessary.
A strike is always a last resort, but we also know the hospital cannot operate safely or effectively while its workforce remains understaffed, overworked, and living in financial insecurity.

We demand that OHSU settle a fair contract now. We stand united behind AFSCME Local 328’s bargaining team and the proposals needed to sustain the workforce this institution depends on.