
Postdoctoral researchers preparing to strike next week have accused Oregon Health & Science University of threatening to cut off their health insurance and vacation leave while hinting that those without U.S. citizenship could lose their positions.
The accusations are contained in an unfair labor practice complaint filed Wednesday on behalf of the researchers, who are negotiating their first contract with the university and have given notice of their plan to go on strike Aug. 15. The complaint, filed with the Oregon Employment Relations Board, is the latest in a contentious back and forth since the roughly 250 postdoctoral researchers opted to form a union under the auspices of AFSCME last year.
Among other things, the complaint claims individual employees are being forced to disclose whether they will strike so their pay can be cut, and are also being told they will lose health care if strike continues into next month.
“OHSU cannot lawfully try and coerce or intimidate employees with explicit or implicit threats of adverse actions to try and sway employees’ decisions on whether to strike,” Jason Weyand, an attorney representing the researchers, wrote in the complaint.
According to the complaint, retaliation by OHSU management began even before the union gave its required 10-day strike notice on Monday and that university management “has engaged in a series of unlawful actions that are intended to chill—or will have the natural consequence of chilling—employees’ willingness to strike.”
OHSU spokesperson Sara Hottman told The Lund Report in an email that the university “can’t comment on open complaints.”
“However, in all cases, we respect the rights of employees to engage in protected union activity,” she wrote. “OHSU remains committed to establishing a fair contract in recognition of all postdocs’ hard work supporting the research mission.”
The complaint claims that administrators at the university’s Vollum Institute called postdoctoral researchers into meetings where they were instructed to report whether they planned to strike so their pay could be halted.
The union received reports of other supervisors asking postdoctoral researchers about whether they would go on strike, according to the complaint.
“This polling is coercive and is intended to deter Postdoc researchers from exercising their statutory right to strike for fair wages, hours, and working Conditions,” the union’s attorney wrote in the complaint.
The complaint included a “Research Update” email telling supervisors they could ask postdoctoral researchers. The email specified that supervisors could only ask if they had a legitimate reason, such as scheduling, and assured the researcher they would not face reprisals.
Additionally, the complaint cited an OHSU email sent to postdoctoral researchers on Monday advising them that they do not have to strike if they don’t want to, could not use vacation time during the strike, and that those striking would lose health insurance if the walkout continued into the next calendar month.
The complaint called the email “misleading,” disputing that researchers’ health insurance would automatically end and that they could use federal protections to keep their coverage. The email’s discussion of vacation time is “a direct threat of adverse action against employees because of the strike,” the complaint states.
The complaint also cites a three-page list of frequently asked questions included with the administration email.
The FAQ also states that participating in the strike is not grounds for deportation for noncitizen postdoctoral researchers. However, it describes scenarios where these researchers could face difficulties in securing documents they need to stay in the country legally.
According to the complaint, the FAQ “exaggerates the risks to international workers in a way that is intended to undermine support for the strike.”
Overall, it says the email contains “a variety of threatening and coercive statements that are clearly an attempt to undermine support for the strike by scaring employees who are working and studying pursuant to such visas that a strike would compromise their immigration status.”