PORTLAND, OR - After nearly a year at the bargaining table and seeing zero progress toward a fair wage, the roughly 250 postdoctoral researchers provided OHSU with the necessary 10 day-notice on Monday, August 5th - that unless OHSU comes forward with a realistic wage proposal, postdocs will go on strike on Thursday, August 15th.
Last week, OHSU postdocs voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike, with nearly 90% voting in favor of a strike.
Typically, employers engage on wage proposals as they are presented. Still, it took OHSU nearly a year, an overwhelming strike vote, a strike announcement, and a 12-hour bargaining session for OHSU to produce their first real wage proposal.
OHSU’s proposal provides postdocs with conditional and disingenuous 3.5% “annual” COLAs. These COLAs will be eliminated when the National Institute of Health (NIH) minimum reaches $70,000. Postdoc salaries are funded by NIH grants, which set the current minimum wage at roughly $61,008 regardless of where the program is located.
“OHSU’s proposal is wholly insufficient and we continue to be fully prepared to go on strike on Thursday, August 15th if we don’t see any movement toward a living wage” said Dr. Paige Arneson-Wissink, PhD, a Postdoctoral Researcher in the study of pancreatic cancer.
“Our living wage proposal is a drop in the bucket compared to the $600 million we brought in via research grants last year. To think someone living in Portland and someone in Toledo, Ohio require the same wage to afford room and board is absurd, but that’s what OHSU is saying” continued Dr. Arneson-Wissink.
Salary disparities at OHSU are extreme, with some executives earning in two weeks what the postdocs receive annually. 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.
“The nearly 40,000 workers represented by Oregon AFSCME stand in solidarity with OHSU’s postdocs and their fight for fairness,” said Oregon AFSCME Executive Director Joe Baessler.
“After being diagnosed with stage four lymphoma last year, I was lucky to be able to receive treatment at OHSU. I’m alive today because of the research postdoctoral workers at OHSU do every day. Thanks to the work of these researchers, I know there are countless stories similar to mine” continued Baessler.
