CIRCLE WITH A DOT

AURN Bargaining Session on Economics2026-05-13By Raven Winters, RN, BSN, CNOR (writing on her own behalf only)Unionized nurses from the Oregon Nurses Association (ONA) at Oregon Health and Science University (OHSU) met with management today in an open-bargaining session with over 100 members observing to propose their powerful economics package, including cost-of-living adjustment (COLA) increases for each year of a two-year contract at 11.25% increases each year, with comparisons to similar academic level-1 trauma centers providing a strong argument for the other contract language that the Association of University Registered Nurses (AURN) believes are priorities: retention differentials, the right to strike if benefits are decreased, switching to fully percentage-based differentials, aligning language with other unions at OHSU, increasing standby call-pay to 50% of straight pay, no mandatory curtailment of hours, reinstatement of 12% retirement matching, and the ability to switch between the state of Oregon's Public Employees Retirement System (PERS), and the University Pension Plan (UPP) among many other changes. The AURN bargaining team usually releases a video and a substantive bargaining update in a newsletter within the day which will cover more details. You can follow them on Instagram @aurnursesofona. The economics presentation, led by ONA labor representative Michael Koehler returned to themes from last bargaining cycle in which nurses at OHSU are compared to their colleagues in a similar size city with similar economics. Housing was a major factor in the presentation: "we are more expensive that Sacremento when it comes to housing stock," Koehler said. Nurses who have worked 10 years at UC Davis on the wage scale currently earn $92.56/hr, compared to AURN which makes $73.79/hr at the Bachelor's of Science in Nursing (BSN) rate. Koelher also pointed out that execs at UC Davis make less than their OHSU counterparts and that the bargaining team thinks this is a "misplaced priority" for management. The last reported salary for the chief nursing executive (CNE) Brooke Baldwin was $654,808.Lead negotiator Brian Howard spoke on the importance of recognizing Juneteenth as an actual holiday instead of the contract's current language which assigns Juneteenth as a "floating" holiday. "We want to avoid anything performative around Juneteenth. It's a holiday. Period." Howard said. Bargaining Team member and Treasurer Corinn Joseph spoke on the importance of standby call pay, especially when it involves childcare costs as the call rate "needs to be able to cover the cost of having the person at your house," Joseph said. Nurses at OHSU would receive half the rate of their straight pay for being on call if this language were to be ratified in the collective bargaining agreement (CBA).The bargaining team also introduced a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) on the usage of AI at OHSU that: defines what AURN means by the term "AI", allows for generative AI to enhance work of nurses to minimize busy work, guards against privacy issues with AI tools, and states that "generative AI does not replace nurses' judgement, critical thinking or assessment skills". The numbers and language proposed by AURN today:contract-length: 2 yearsincrease wage scale steps from 30 to 35cost of living adjustment of 11.25% each year of the contractretention differential that kicks in at 10 years of being at OHSU, starting at 6% with increases of 2% every 5 yearsevening shift differential: 7%night shift differential: 18%weekend shift differential: 10%charge nurse differential: 12%surgical services coordinator differential: 12%preceptor differential: 12%bilingual differential: 6.5%float pool differential: 20%floating differential: 7%ambulatory floating differential: 7%call pay on standby: 50% of straight payfinish procedure bonus: $200mandatory curtailment hours: 0 (eliminates mandatory curtailment)nurses will no longer be able to waive CNI to skip the line to get assigned the CNI shiftelimination of 2-tiered system for retirement benefits: nurses will all get up to 12% match for retirementhealthcare benefits will not be cut for the life of the contract: "we don't think health insurance is a benefit if you can't access it," Koehler said.Critical Need Incentive (CNI) pay will apply for 2 or more hours worked in ambulatory unitsthe compensatory bank hours (comp-bank), in which nurses can opt to convert hours from call-pay or CNI into extra vacation pay, will no longer have a limiteducation about retirement plans will be required will be able to switch between PERS and UPP during open enrollmentnurses will be able strike (the no-strikes, no lockouts provision will be waived) if retirement benefits are decreasedOHSU will cover 100% of PPO health plan (includes dental and vision)#labor #unions #union #nursing #healthcare

@chris SpeechNote works very well, all local, excellent privacy, many languageshttps://github.com/mkiol/dsnote

RE: https://cosocial.ca/@deborahh/116563784559147671How's AI in Ontario Healthcare going?60% … recorded a different drug than was prescribedSure glad this was only a test!#Ai #LLM #HealthCare #Ontario #ONPoli

Stupid health insurance doing it again: they’re refusing to pay anything for the pre-approved MRI that I had....in January. I submitted an appeal.But I also cancelled the pre-approved CT scan scheduled for next Tuesday, since I’m 99% certain they’ll pull the same bullshit. Don’t give pre-approval if you’re unwilling to cover it...cause I don’t need approval then. Fucking bastards.#HealthInsurance #HealthCare #health

The Canadian strategy of “let’s hope the courts fix” is entirely flawed and lazy. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. It always starts with the most vulnerable and now we’re seeing provincial efforts to privatize with no Federal enforcement of the #Canada Health Act. #cdnpoli#healthcare

@LaChasseuse Vancouver unfortunately best illustrates how speculation & wealth drive housing inflation.If it was just a matter of more density, more housing starts, Vancouver would be the cheapest place to live in North America, its the opposite."Patrick M. Condon contends that the public, rather than private owners, should capture the increase in land prices stimulated by economic growth and consequent population increases. He argues that value increments are not attributable to any investment by the landowners, but instead to improvements in the surroundings of their parcels. These improvements are themselves a consequence of both public infrastructure investment and the locational advantage that results from investment by other private development in the vicinity"https://thetyee.ca/Culture/2024/07/19/Patrick-Condon-Why-Housing-Costs-So-High/https://www.ijurr.org/book_review/broken-city-book-review/

Open Source can save lives. Over 40 low- and middle-income countries are using Open Source software to manage their vaccination programs.#healthcare #opensourcehttps://www.warpnews.org/health-tech/open-source-helps-reach-millions-of-unvaccinated-children/

@bich This species is fucking weird

Please copy and paste into the form on the website of your Senators and Representative. Please share with friends. https://www.congress.gov/contact-usDear Senator/Representative -I am against the plans of this Republican Administration to make Medicare Advantage the default enrollment for Medicare, I am against the use of AI claims denial in Medicare, and I want you to fight these efforts.Medicate Advantage costs US taxpayers 14% more than if those same people were enrolled in traditional Medicare, according to the Medicare Payment Advisory Committee. This extra $76 billion of my tax dollars gets paid to for-profit health insurance companies. Study after study has shown that Medicare Advantage, while costing more, does not lead to better outcomes for patients. Medicare Advantage deserves to be completely dismantled, not expanded, as does the new program to use AI for prior authorization in Traditional Medicare Washington state hospitals say their Medicare patients are waiting two to four times longer for procedures that are now subject to prior authorization under a new Medicare program. But this administration of Ballroom Republicans doesn't care about healthcare access or costs for ordinary Americans. Their policies show they only care about their ballroom friends and corporate profits.I want to see you develop better policies that serve every American, not just the rich.#Resist #ResistOfTheDay #Medicare #Healthcare #BallroomRepublicans

“I often thought that the effects of my illness mirrored life in a home with an unpredictable and cruel father. Home was not a safe place...Fibromyalgia made me feel unsafe in my own body.”#Indigenous #Métis #chronicillness #trauma #healthcare https://www.windspeaker.com/news/windspeaker-news/author-discovers-and-deals-anger-and-trauma-new-book

@jeffowski Calling the problem capitalism is not useful. Our crappy capitalism leaves a lot to be desired, but what’s your model?for each of your three legitimate failures, there’s a democratic capitalist example that we can adopt.

@VE2UWY Not the premier, I assume. There's only one procedure I can think of that he'd be good at, and it's not a pleasant one.

Mental health is part of your health. It should be part of our publicly-funded healthcare system.What do we think is worth spending money on in this country?Why does this government seem to have billions available for major projects and for bullets and bombs but not for projects that benefit all of us?#cdnpoli #mentalhealth #healthcare

Remember the NYT headline "AI Chatbots Defeated Doctors at Diagnosing Illness"? That was Adam Rodman's research.Rodman's worried tech companies are going to twist his team's new Science paper that shows an OpenAI model is better than doctors at diagnosis/clinical reasoning and claim it's proof AI is safe & effective for medicine.Read more about what the new study does & does NOT say: https://www.statnews.com/2026/04/30/open-ai-llm-model-outperforms-doctors-study-published-journal-science/#health #healthcare #medicine #AI #artificialintelligence #healthtech

Somehow we always have a ton of cash for bombs and surveillance, but America can barely get food, healthcare, or energy on a consistent basis, and our transportation is shit. I wonder how much longer this can go on. May Day tomorrow!#climate #healthcare #MayDay #transportation

@bobkmertz Likewise, I didn't mean to "not all men" your post. Yes, health insurance sucks, and it's only getting worse. Insurance companies are destroying healthcare in this country.

Sergey Brin, a billionaire architect of today's ruthless surveillance capitalism, does not want any of his billions going to support health care spending in California.https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryroeloffs/2026/04/28/google-billionaire-sergey-brin-compares-california-wealth-tax-to-soviet-union-socialism/#uspol #California #Google #billionaires #healthcare

@Rasta people have to RECALL his political ass and Ford has been li ING his pockets as an inside trader as a lobbist ...worse kind to have around ... when they only do for themselves and not the people they are supposed to do things for

#HIPAA readiness is changing fast. Static checklists won’t cut it anymore.The 2026 Security Rule raises the bar on resilience, visibility, and proof of compliance across #healthcare environments. Find out what’s changing and how to get ahead now: https://claroty.com/resources/datasheets/2026-hipaa-security-rule-compliance-readiness-with-claroty

The federal government needs to intervene before it’s too late. https://www.policyalternatives.ca/news-research/albertas-new-health-legislation-brings-u-s-style-insurance-to-canada/#healthCare #universalHealthCare #equality #Canada #abpoli #cdnpoli