Dear OSUNO / ONA Member,
Late Friday afternoon, OSU’s well-compensated outside law firm sent our union this letter. They took issue with our communication to our members about negotiations, demanding the message be retracted.
After careful review, we stand by our communications. We will not be threatened or intimidated for standing up for each other, especially during Nurse’s Week. We will not alter or retract the truth, just because OSU doesn’t like it. And we will not stop telling OSU to invest in nurses, even if they don’t want to hear it. Frankly, it is shameful OSU chooses to spend their time and money trying to silence and control us rather than listen to us.
On April 28, when around 100 nurses showed up to negotiations and to deliver a letter to OSU President Kristina Johnson, many nurses stayed and shared their experiences at the bedside with the OSU bargaining team. Some of us were on the verge of tears recounting how difficult the last few years have been. OSU called that “grandstanding and vitriol.”
Over the past two years OSU has turned down every opportunity to discuss recruitment/retention strategies, citing bargaining as the only time for these conversations. Now we’re in bargaining, and OSU continues to downplay the seriousness of the crisis we are facing. It is clear they are trying to conduct business as usual while we’re doing the real work to keep our hospital going.
We can’t settle a contract until we get what’s needed to safely staff our hospital. Here are some of the main disagreements:
- Insufficient wage increases in each year of the agreement, especially for experienced nurses
- Refusing to extend TSIP even though we all know staffing won’t be fixed by July 1
- Refusing to increase in the moment incentive pay or prioritize using incentive pay before hiring travelers
Our bargaining team is ready to finish negotiations as soon as OSU decides to get serious and listen to nurses!
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