PORTLAND, Ore. – After nearly a year at the bargaining table and seeing zero progress toward receiving a fair contract, roughly 250 Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) postdoctoral researchers represented by Oregon AFSCME are ready to go on strike.
On Aug. 5, they provided OHSU with the necessary 10-day strike notice. That means unless OHSU comes up with a realistic wage proposal, the postdocs will go on strike on Thursday, Aug. 15.
The postdocs voted overwhelmingly last week to authorize a strike if OHSU executives continue to offer scrimpy wages and benefits. That move came after nine months of OHSU refusing to offer a contract with fair wages, benefits and improved working conditions.
“We are standing together for better pay, better benefits and better working conditions. Our work helped OHSU get a record $600 million in research grants last year, but they refuse to offer us a penny above a nationally set minimum wage that doesn’t recognize the cost of living in Portland,” said Paige Arneson-Wissink, Ph.D., a postdoc who studies pancreatic cancer.
In June, AFSCME President Lee Saunders traveled to Portland to support the postdocs as they fought for a fair contract. At a rally on the OHSU campus, Saunders said the 11,000 AFSCME members who work for the state’s only public medical university and AFSCME’s 1.4 million members nationwide stand with the postdocs. He also supported their plans to strike if management continued to resist.
Last month, postdocs announced an impasse after contract talks with OHSU management stalled.
Postdocs say OHSU’s salary disparities are extreme and unfair. OHSU President Dr. Danny Jacobs gets paid in two weeks about what a postdoctoral researcher earns in a year and he was just granted $700,000 in additional retirement benefits. Meanwhile, the postdoctoral researchers who are working on finding cures for cancer and other serious diseases are struggling to keep up with the costs of living in one of the most expensive communities in the country.
OHSU has so far refused to make a reasonable salary offer above the inadequate minimum wage of $61,008 established by the National Institutes of Health. This minimum does not meet the cost of living in Oregon or industry standards. The University of Washington pays a minimum salary that is $10,000 higher than the minimum offered to OHSU researchers.
In addition to fair wages and benefits, OHSU postdocs are also fighting for protected time off for visa renewals for international employees, who make up more than 50% of postdoc workers.
They also want OHSU to issue W-2 IRS forms to all postdocs. Currently, the researchers are issued a mix of W2s and the Form 1099, which compromises their ability to qualify for Paid Leave Oregon. Access to these benefits would improve equity and retention of postdocs from underrepresented gender, racial and ethnic backgrounds.
"The postdoctoral researchers at OHSU are not just vital to medical advancements — they are the driving force behind research that saves lives and they have the full support of our union,” said Joe Baessler, executive director of Oregon AFSCME. “The administration's refusal to meet their reasonable demands for fair wages and decent working conditions is disrespectful and jeopardizes the future of health care research. It’s time for OHSU to prioritize its workers, who are the foundation of its success, rather than undermining them.”