Membership 11/20/24
Good day, members! We held our first bargaining session. Overall we think it went well. However, there is clearly a lot more work to be done. We can do this.
We met on Monday, November 18th, at Emanuel. The meeting was scheduled to start at 4:30 pm. Our team was there early and settled by 4:20 pm. A reminder, our team is:
Shikhi Bhansari, DO
Tracy Laidley, MD
Angela Marshall-Olson, DO
Tanell Ogbeide, NP-C
Amber Oyama, FNP-C
Maysee Salleva, MD
Chris Stamatakos, PA-C
Julian Uselman, DO
Janet West, MD
Kar-yee Wu, MD
Justin Heath (Union rep)
Sam Luebke (Union rep)
The Legacy team arrived at 4:49 pm. Their team was (I apologize in advance if I spell anyone’s name wrong or if I give them the incorrect title):
Tedra Demitriou (chief nursing officer)
Gwen Grewe, MD (clinical vice president of primary care)
Heather Crownharts (admin director-SW Washington and Emanuel)
Eric MacEvoy, MD (regional medical director-Metro south)
Molly Roberts (admin director-Good Samaritan, Mt Hood, St Helens)
Christina Rosborough (admin director-Silverton region)
Julie Yeggy, MD (regional medical director-Emanuel)
Tony Byero(lawyer)
Pedro Mobley (Labor relations consultant)
We introduced ourselves and clarified that while we are technically two bargaining groups, we have so much overlap that it makes sense to bargain over these matters together as one. There will be times when we will be bargaining separately, likely over issues of compensation, but again, our plan to is act as one even though we are two. There was general consensus from Legacy that this made sense.
We then started into the non-economic articles that we had prepared.
One quick note-I am going to give the general gist of what the articles state rather than the articles themselves. Since we are bargaining, the language will likely change. Also some of these articles are pretty long. We do welcome questions about them, but understand that things may be in flux. My goal is to give you, the members, a general idea of what we’re asking for. When Legacy and your bargaining team have agreed to a contract, that contract will be sent to all members to read and vote on. If someone has a better idea of how to do this, I am open to suggestions. Thanks.
The articles were:
-Lactation support
We want members who are breastfeeding and/or pumping to have a safe and clean place to pump or breastfeed. We outlined the basic requirements for a space. Not too controversial, but we are also asking that members are not penalized monetarily for taking the time to breastfeed or pump. We shall see what Legacy has to say.
-Recognition
Standard language defining who is in each bargaining group.
-Union business
This is to allow our union reps to meet us where we work and to use a conference room or space where we work to do union business if needed. It also would allow us to have space on a bulletin board to post union information and business. Lastly we are asking for the ability to use Legacy email, messaging, and virtual meeting systems to make union announcements.
-No strike/no lockout
This is very standard language that union contracts have. Fundamentally it means while the contract is in effect, we do not strike and Legacy does not lock us out. Every contract has a shelf life, usually 2-3 years. Again, very standard language, very normal, very expected. If we are not under contract, like now or when our contract expires, then we could strike if we felt it was necessary. We hope it will never ever be necessary.
-Equality of Employment Opportunity
Neither the union nor Legacy will discriminate in employment matters against any employee on account of age, sex, race, creed, color, national origin, marital status, veteran status, religion, religious beliefs, sexual orientation, gender identity or expression, genetic information or disability or physical or mental disability not relevant to performance of duties. Also, Legacy cannot discriminate against an employee on account of membership in or lawful activity on behalf of the union.
-Successor
This is basically to try and protect our contract in case Legacy is bought out by someone including OHSU. There was some discussion over this and if it is actually necessary since OHSU has already said they would honor all union contracts. We countered that the buyout is not done and we put the language in as if no suitor was in place. We will see what Legacy comes back at us with.
-Grievance process
This outlines what we think would be a reasonable grievance process. The grievance process will have a stepwise progression starting with direct managers then moving up the chain of command if needed. Arbitration and mediation are both worked into what we proposed as well as what would happen if something is going on in more than one clinic. We know Legacy will have a response to this. It will be a work in process.
Friendly reminder that if you are asked to be in a meeting that could be disciplinary (or what the National Labor Relations Board call investigatory interviews), you have the right to have a union rep there with you. This is called your Weingarten rights. Please do not forget them.
-Formation of Task Force
We are asking for an ongoing meeting happening every two months that brings together representatives from the union and from Legacy to discuss issues that come up that we won’t necessarily be able to bargain over but are still important to our culture, our morale, and ourselves. This article definitely made the Legacy side think and ask questions, but they seemed open to the possibility. Most unions and management do end up forming committees to address similar issues and that is what we’re looking for.
At the end, Legacy’s lawyer, Tony, did open the floor by asking us what we felt were really important. Some of the areas of concerns we discussed included:
-the complexity and opacity of the compensation plan
-Schedules, use of PTO, and the huge variation between clinics about how schedules can be adjusted last minute, when PTO can be or cannot be used, etc
-taking care of our members with non-traditional roles, like our supplemental doctors and the members who have clinic and hospital FTE
-General morale across all of primary care and how we can improve that so we can keep the people we have and minimize turnover
-the wide range of support available across the clinics. Some clinics have a lot of support like clinic pharmacists, BHC’s, and nurse triage. Other clinics just don’t. We want greater parity between the clinics.
-All the virtual messages and inbox work we have to do that just weighs us down. How we make all of that easier?
-What people are saying in exit interviews to see where Legacy can improve
-How primary care is challenging and hard and what can be done to ease some of those challenges.
Nothing was decided about any of the issues we raised. This was more an opportunity to just discuss what we felt was important and likely to come in bargaining. Tony seemed to appreciate the feedback.
We did raise issues we have had with management since the union was certified. We emphasized that we want to work with Legacy as partners and a team, that we are trying to make things better for everyone.
Lastly, Tony asked the Legacy side if they had anything to say. No one spoke. Their silence was noted. We aren’t sure why no one said anything. In fact Tony did 95-99% of the talking for their side while all of us contributed to the discussion from our side. We shall see what our next session holds.
At the end, we gave them our availability for dates. We plan to make our bargaining sessions virtual for now. We do not have a future date for bargaining, but given the holidays and our availability, it will likely not be until December. We will let you know when we do have another date.
So overall, the session went well. This evening we discussed our next steps. We will be working on crafting more contract language. We also are going to work on our social media presence, so stay tuned for that information.
As always, feel free to reach out to any of the bargaining team with questions, thoughts, and/or concerns. The email for the union is legacypcpunion@gmail.com. Emails sent to this address will be responded to within 1-3 days.
If you’ve made it this far, thanks for reading. Again, this union is here to help you.
Kar-yee on behalf your bargaining team