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About Northwest labor press. (Portland , Ore.) 1987-current | View Entire Issue (Nov. 6, 2020)
PAGE 2 | November 6, 2020 | NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS ...OHSU fights union campaign at Hillsboro hospital From Page 1 (International Standard Serial Number 0894-444X) Established in 1900 in Portland, Oregon as a voice of the la- bor movement. Published on a semi-monthly basis on the first and third Fridays of each month by the Oregon Labor Press Publishing Co. Inc., a non-profit mutual benefit corpo- ration owned by 20 unions and councils including the Ore- gon AFL-CIO. Serving more than 120 union organizations in Oregon and Southwest Washington. Office location: 4275 NE Halsey St., Portland, Oregon Mailing address: P.O. Box 13150, Portland, OR 97213 Phone: (503) 288-3311 Web address: http://nwlaborpress.org Editor & Manager: Michael Gutwig Senior staff reporter: Don McIntosh Office manager: Jill Lukens Printed on recycled paper, using soy-based inks, by members of Teamsters Local 747-M. SUBSCRIPTIONS: Individual subscriptions are $15 a year for union members, $23 a year for all others. Pay by credit card online at nwlaborpress.org/subscribe, or send a check to our mailing address (above) along with your name, address and union affiliation, if any. Group rates of 48 cents an issue per member —$11.52 a year— are available for 25 or more subscriptions; call 503-288-3311. CORRECTIONS: See an error? Please let us know at editor@nwlaborpress.org or by phone at 503-288-3311. PERIODICALS POSTAGE PAID AT PORTLAND, OREGON. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: If you move, let us know at nwlaborpress.org/subscriber-services or by mail at our mailing address (above). Be sure to provide your old and new addresses and the name/number of your local union. Please allow three weeks for the change to take effect. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS P.O. BOX 13150 PORTLAND, OR 97213-0150 New Temporary Hours: Mon-Sat 12-6 pm CLARIFICATION Library workers were offered recall Our Oct. 16 article about turmoil in the wake of position cuts at the Multnomah County Library failed to mention that the library DID offer recall to staff who earlier accepted voluntary layoff. ing. But private sector hospitals, under the National Labor Rela- tions Act, can drag out the process, hire union-busting con- sultants, and insist on an election before which they have seven weeks or more to campaign in the workplace. That anti-union campaign in the workplace has already begun, says Shellie Powers, a 10-year employee at the hospital. Powers works 12-hour graveyard shifts checking patients into the Hills- boro Medical Center emergency room. Powers says a manager who oversees housekeeping and food service workers has been telling workers one-on-one that unionizing would be a big mis- take. The manager told workers if they unionize she won’t be al- lowed to schedule them beyond 8 hours in a shift, or approve their vacation requests except by sen- iority. [Having worked union at Kaiser, Powers knows both of those statements are false. In fact, nurses at OHSU Hillsboro Med- ical Center are represented by the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) and routinely work longer shifts.] The manager even told one worker he should look for a job elsewhere if he’s not happy, and that she’d be posting his position. Oregon AFSCME is preparing to file charges over that illegal threat. By late September, a majority of the workers had signed cards saying they want a union. On Sept. 21, a delegation of workers tried to meet with CEO Lori James-Nielsen to ask for volun- tary union recognition. Instead, they were intercepted by a secu- rity guard and told to get off the property. It was Powers who first con- tacted Oregon AFSCME, in April, after her and her co-work- ers’ frustrations had reached a boiling point and she started talk- ing to co-workers she hadn’t met before. “I found out that I wasn’t alone,” Powers told the Labor Press. “And my department was- n’t alone. Every single depart- ment had complaints.” The biggest complaint: no say, no voice, in the decisions that af- fect their working lives. “We voice our concerns, but then they go nowhere,” Powers said. Having no voice meant no Personal Protective Equipment when the COVID-19 pandemic first hit, even though employees HELP THEM WIN A UNION Union supporters will hold a public rally on Wednesday, Nov. 11, 11 a.m. at the main hospital entrance: 335 SE Eighth Avenue, Hillsboro. The union is also collecting signa- tures on an online petition de- manding that OHSU Hillsboro Med- ical Center follow the law and stop threatening its employees: https://bit.ly/3kI4dGU were clamoring for protection. Workers also had their hours cut, and exhausted their reserves of paid time off. Workers got no raise this year. They also get no hazard pay, even when they in- teract with COVID-19 patients. Twenty-one staff members have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Oct. 27. Wages and benefits are also lower than those of union members doing the same work at other OHSU locations. Oregon AFSCME submitted the union cards Oct. 5 to the Ore- gon Employment Relations Board (ERB), which administers the public sector union law. On Oct. 29, the last day OHSU could legally respond to that submittal, an attorney for Bullard Law filed a petition with the National La- bor Relations Board requesting a union election—on behalf of Tu- ality Healthcare. “They’re Tuality Healthcare when it suits them,” says AF- SCME organizer Sarah Thomp- son. An OHSU spokesperson said by email that Tuality and OHSU are affiliated, but each has a dif- ferent board of directors, and they’re distinctly separate entities with regard to employment and labor. “I guess they think they’re calling our bluff,” Thompson said. To avoid delay, Oregon AF- SCME may just agree with the hospital’s proposed election timeline, in which mail ballots would go out Dec. 9 and be due back Jan. 13. Like the AFSCME bargaining unit at OHSU, the proposed unit would include many kinds of workers, includ- ing pharmacists, medical lab sci- entists and social workers; respi- ratory therapists, diagnostic technicians and other medical technologists; skilled mainte- nance employees; and service workers like CNAs, housekeep- ers and food service workers. “Our interest is in having peo- ple be in the union as soon as possible,” Thompson says.
