The Portland State University Faculty Association (PSUFA) announced Sept. 19 that they had reached a tentative agreement with the Portland State administration.
This tentative agreement—if approved by PSUFA members—includes a 10% Cost of Living Adjustment effective fall 2023, a 21% increase to the current per-credit minimum rate, length of service payment for six or more years of service, a 6% retirement pick-up, course development compensation, inclusion funds for adjuncts attending department meetings and increases to PSUFA’s Tech Fund and Adjunct Faculty Assistance Fund for caregivers.
PSUFA was voting on this contract and has been unavailable for comment. As the story develops, Portland State Vanguard will continue to provide updates via Instagram.
However, PSUFA is far from the only labor union working towards a fair contract.
Since early summer, both the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) and the Writers Guild of America (WGA) have been on strike seeking protections from how streaming and other industry shifts have affected their livelihoods.
After five months of striking, on Sept. 24 the Writer’s Guild of America (WGA) announced a tentative agreement with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers. Though this deal is a positive step toward ending the strikes, it does not mean the entertainment industry will be up and running anytime soon.
Kyle Wallace is a Portland-based professional set-dresser, prop person and member of the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees. According to Wallace, WGA has expressed that they will not return to work until SAG-AFTRA reaches a deal as well.
“Although the scribes and WGA might be closer to coming to an agreement on a new contract, it sounds as though they will not go back to work until [SAG-AFTRA] has also come to a contract agreement out of solidarity between the two unions,” Wallace said. “Just because a new contract has been resolved, does not necessarily mean that work will be picking right back up again.”
Wallace—who has been out of work since June—said he thinks the advent of the COVID-19 pandemic was a paradigm shift that changed how people think about work.
“The event that transpired within the pandemic—of recognizing what is of value or of necessity to keep a community, a city, a state, a country moving—has really brought to light these labor inequities, so I’m grateful that there is this moment within the labor movement of speaking up to acknowledging what our worth is,” Wallace said. “It’s a great reminder that a majority of the people in the film industry are middle class, working class… Not everybody’s getting the same salary as our A-list celebrities.”
Wallace explained that television shows employ anywhere from 80 people full-time, and feature films employ 40–70 people full-time. Typically, Wallace explained that most film shoots are a minimum of 10 hours a day, sometimes six days a week. He said there is no full-time employment in the industry, especially in Portland.
“12-hour workdays six days a week is just exhausting,” Wallace said. “I’m grateful that there’s progress being made, and the requests are not egregious from the WGA or [SAG-AFTRA] for the new contract simulation.”
Since the pandemic, healthcare workers nationwide have been struggling with staffing shortages, staff burnout and increased patient needs. The Association of University Registered Nurses, the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) and Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) announced they reached a tentative agreement on Sept. 26 after 10 months of bargaining for a fair contract.
According to Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB), nurses would see an average base pay increase of 37%. Union members will vote to ratify the proposal on Oct. 1 and 5. If ratified, the contract would last through June 30, 2026.
According to OPB, the last OHSU strike was in 2001. ONA represents approximately 3,000 nurses who voted almost unanimously at 95% to authorize a strike.
“Members of the negotiating team accused the hospital’s leadership of taking generous raises while neglecting frontline workers and problems with patient care,” OPB reported.
Duncan Zevetski—an oncology nurse at OHSU and vice president of the bargaining unit—said nurses at OHSU have seen increases in safety concerns and staff burnout. Zevetski explained how it would be the strongest contract OHSU has ever won, if they voted to ratify this deal.
“We’ve been bargaining this contract for 10 months now,” Zevetski said. “What’s in this contract is of exponential benefit to both our nurses and our patients at OHSU. It has guaranteed staffing language in it. We are the only contract in Oregon that has set ratios in our contract now that go beyond what the Oregon staffing law is. So that is a dramatic improvement of the status quo at OHSU for our patients and our nurses.”
Zevetski explained that safety concerns at OHSU have increased exponentially in recent years. Since OHSU is an open hospital, he said nurses have dealt with hostile and violent patrons alone.
“Our emergency department has a lot of access points, many of which are just left open,” Zevetski said. “That has resulted in people who do not need to be in our hospital getting into the hospital. When people are sick, they need to come to the emergency department. They need to come to the hospital. They’re stressed out. And then they’re put into a position where they’re crowded in, they don’t have a bathroom to use, there’s no food in the emergency department, they start getting escalated, agitated, and that leads to an increased likelihood that there will be a safety event. We recently had a patient who was able to make it through all the security in the hospital with a firearm, sat down in our emergency department, had it in their lap, and our nurses had to deal with it.”
However, this contract includes a wide variety of safety implementations and a guarantee that OHSU will spend $10 million implementing new and improved safety measures over the next three years. This spending will be dictated by nurses and other healthcare workers, not by executives.
The contract also features mental health guarantees and provisions allowing nurses to escalate harassment and discrimination claims.
Due to staffing shortages, Zevetski explained how OHSU nurses have been unable to provide the highest quality care to their patients.
“I have to prioritize my care and focus on the things that keep someone healthy and minimally safe by minimally improving in their care,” Zevetski said. “I do not have the time to do the things that are critical, to not just stabilize their health outlook but to emotionally support them in their care. Our emergency departments have patients in the hallways. They have patients in gurneys lining the unit, and they are not able to do any of that work. They’re just there to stabilize, get people moved into the hospital, and that’s it. With additional staffing, we will actually be able to provide the highest quality care we can give to our nurses or to our patients.”
Much like Wallace, Zevetski explained how COVID-19 was a tipping point for the industry and highlighted America’s healthcare insufficiencies. This has resulted in experienced nurses seeking alternative jobs due to the strain on their physical and mental well-being.
Zevetski said he regularly went entire shifts without sitting down or taking a break. This negatively affects patient care. Though many nurses have chosen to leave the industry because of these conditions, Zevetski hopes this new contract will bring them back.
“The overwhelming support for nurses in the Portland area has been tremendous, and we really appreciate that, and we hope that continues,” Zevetski said. “And I’m really excited for this contract. It’s a solid contract, and my hope for it is that we’ll be able to retain the nurses we already have, recruit really bright talented nurses from elsewhere, and just garner the respect that we deserve as healthcare practitioners and frontline workers here in Portland.”