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After almost a year of negotiations, unionized researchers with doctorate degrees reached a tentative four-year labor agreement with Oregon Health & Science University, their first as a bargaining unit.
The agreement promises the 250 members of PostDoc Workers United a 6% pay increase upon ratification, and a lump sum payment of $2,000 if the union’s members vote to approve the deal by Aug. 31. They would get pay increases of 3.5% in the second through fourth year of the contract.
Negotiators reached a deal this morning at about 12:15 am, says Paige Arneson-Wissink, a pancreatic cancer researcher who is on the bargaining team. Postdocs had planned to strike today if talks failed. The union is a unit of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.
“It’s been a long haul,” Arneson-Wissink said in an interview. “Our union was able to stand strong in our belief that this is what we deserved. There were a lot of smiles in the room last night.”
Postdoc workers are often the high-skilled, low-paid workforce for research institutions like OHSU. Their starting salary nationwide, determined by the National Institutes of Health, is $61,008, but research hospitals in expensive cites like Seattle and San Francisco often pay more. Postdocs at OHSU have been pressing for higher wages because the cost of living in Portland is high.
The agreement comes as OHSU pursues a merger with Legacy Health, where doctors and nurses have been unionizing, too, amid concern that the deal will lead to job cuts. Both institutions are struggling with higher costs for salaries and supplies, hurting their bottom lines.
In addition to better pay, the OHSU postdoc union also wanted more time off for the many researchers who come from abroad. At OHSU, more than half do. They must travel outside the county to renew visas, trips that can take up valuable time and money. Postdocs got up to 10 more days of paid leave for those international trips, Arneson-Wissink said. They also got up to $5,000 to cover visa costs.
As part of the agreement, the postdoc union agreed to drop an unfair labor practices complaint made with Oregon’s Employment Relations Board. The union had alleged that OHSU violated labor laws by “polling” researchers about whether they intended to join the strike set to begin today. Such questioning is tantamount to coercion, the union argued in the complaint.
“This is a huge accomplishment, and we appreciate the dedication and collaboration of both bargaining teams for their time spent reaching this agreement and their support of our valued people,” OHSU and PostDoc Workers United said in a joint statement.
PostDoc Workers United is one of three unions representing researchers at OHSU. Research Workers United, a group of 1,800 researchers with various levels of education that organized in May, start negotiations with OHSU in September, union spokesman David Kreisman said.