Service & Solidarity Spotlight: TA Reached Between OHSU and Postdoc Workers United

Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

After almost a year of negotiations, postdoctoral researchers reached their first tentative agreement (TA) last week on a four-year contract with Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU).

Members of OHSU Postdoc Workers United—an affiliate of the Oregon AFSCME Council 75—certified their union back in May 2023. After repeated lowball proposals from the public research university, workers earlier this month voted with 87.5% support to authorize a strike that would have started Thursday. But thanks to the dedication of the bargaining committee, the 250 members of Postdoc Workers United have avoided a strike and will now decide whether to accept an exciting new agreement. The deal includes a 6% pay increase upon ratification, with annual increases of 3.5% through the life of the contract, provisions that support international postdocs, increased paid time off, a commitment to forming a joint labor-management committee and more.

“It’s been a long haul,” said Paige Arneson-Wissink, a pancreatic cancer researcher who is on the bargaining team. “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.”