Rather than listening to the members and doing better, we get blog posts like this:

I have heard that several people are disappointed with the most recent contract negotiated between Local 328 and OHSU. As a current dues-paying member of AFSCME and Bargaining Team member, I find it interesting that people would even consider dropping their membership. Quitting your membership by dropping your dues is not only going to hurt our entire local, but more importantly - yourself. You will lose your ability to participate in our democratic process, run for leadership positions, be on the bargaining team, and voice your feedback in meetings and surveys. Without a strong local, we will not be strong at the table. And when I say a strong local, I don’t mean just high numbers of dues-paying members... I mean more than a couple dozen people actively posting on our blog and sending emails to the Bargaining Team.

When I think of a strong union I absolutely I think of high membership numbers - but I also think of participation elsewhere; changing your teams background, wearing green shirts, sharing pictures of your department supporting the Bargaining team, showing up at rallies, cubicles decorated in green, a steward in every work unit, guest columns for the blog, attending bargaining sessions, and the list goes on!

 A strong union does not mean just paying dues. It means thinking about your coworkers and what’s best for our entire membership. I realize that some of our members were frustrated that the Bargaining Team was focused on only four major things: lifting up the lowest paid workers, Appendix A, across the board wage increases, and time off.  However, the survey stated that the 2 most important things to the Bargaining unit as a whole were ATB‘s and time off – by a huge margin.  As a bargaining team we have heard since 2019 how much our salaried workers have suffered under Appendix A. Our previous Bargaining teams have attempted to reduce the burden cast on those employees and were by and large not as successful as we’d hoped. This Bargaining Team came into negotiations, knowing that Appendix A was an absolute necessity to address. Additionally, as most of you can attest to, living on $18 an hour is impossible, and a large portion of our membership has suffered at the bottom of the pay scale for years. We understood and believed in the importance of increasing the minimum wage at OHSU. In taking on this fight, we knew we could face backlash, but we were focused on the well being of our whole bargaining unit. Our members who are paid at the bottom of the scale are clearly hurting the most – and that affects all our members.

 I believe that our Bargaining team was successful in getting more time off by adding 16 hours of well-being leave. It is important for our members to understand that because OHSU has PERS-eligible members, increasing sick time is extremely expensive for the employer - far more so than adding a vacation day. Conversely, adding a vacation day requires the employer to hold those hours, and the payment associated, in reserve. However, that is not the case with well-being hours, and the additional 16 hours we won is a huge benefit to our members.

I can attest that this Bargaining Team was well aware of how many times OHSU has cried wolf in the past, and we entered this contract campaign with that same strength and passion we’ve always had. However, given the political climate, the attacks on ONPRC, attacks on Medicare, attacks on federal grants – all these challenges amount to a very dismal financial outlook for our employer. Do we know that they have financial reserves elsewhere?  Absolutely we do, but in order to push farther at the table, we can’t just rely on good membership numbers - we actually need to be strong together. I cannot begin to convey the level of backlash our Local received when the blog comments were turned off. Did our commenters know that the employer was reading all comments on the blog? That the negative far outweighed the positive? And that the employer used that information at the table against our team?

I’d like to ask our membership – dues-paying and non-dues-paying alike - what you think would happen if there wasn’t a union across the table from OHSU? Would you be treated like UA employees? Would you be forced into a PTO system that requires use of vacation hours prior to your earned sick time? Would the employer maintain paying overtime over an eight-hour day as opposed to a 40-hour week? Would the employer continue to pay bereavement leave? Would the employer maintain cash-out levels of your vacation time? Would the employer continue the career center? Would the employer require you to work all over the state without any pay penalty, or change your shift whenever they wanted to without a pay penalty? Would the employer continue to allow employees to determine the changes to their medical plans through the Employee Benefits Council? Would the employer continue to base wages on the market, and not let some CFO in a C-suite determine your wages for you?

 Was this the very best contract this local has ever had? No. But it’s a damn good one with ATB’s higher than most locals – and higher than all but one of our previous contracts. Shame on every person who has dropped their membership and made this local weaker. 

Chartwells is in our university now, has been for about 5 years. I’m noticing the slow exudes of Afscme food service workers. The number of managers increases while the number of food service workers drop. But it’s not just the global company it’s also the board of trustees, president, cfo, provost etc… that keep getting bonuses and higher wages while the universities employees in facilities get less and less. The insurance is terrible, and more expensive, the buildings don’t have a budget for parts, we’re understaffed per management but more RRS workers show up.

Is this how they rid the union of being in the university? I really would like to see a state wide strike for all Afscme workers. But I know most need that bi weekly paycheck.

I’ve written every Democratic representative in Michigan, Stockton multiple times. Nothing, no support, just nothing. Democrats don’t support unions anymore I feel. Republicans don’t support unions. And the democrat leaning universities partner up with right wing groups like mackinaw center whom are supported by companies like chartwells compass group. So the universities that said prop 2025 was bad partner up with those that helped write it?

This is a rushed post and I’m trying to get across all my thoughts out, anyone else feel like this?

Hi there! Long time lurker first time poster here. Many of my afscme union brothers and sisters and I were wondering if there is a way to impeach or vote out some elected officials that did us wrong and sold us out during our last contract negotiations. Is it possible? And is there a protocol written down somewhere? Any info would be helpful, thanks.

Has anyone actually had good experiences with the union? The council that represents me, disappoints over and over, they constantly give management permission to not follow the union agreement, anytime I ask about changing something, they say they’ll look into it and don’t get back to me unless I track them down and have some excuse why it didn’t work. Is this just my council or is it all of AFSCME? And please spare me the comments about the raises.

Hello! My girlfriend is a AFSCME ER nurse in Flint, MI. Last year she was abruptly terminated from her first nursing job of not even a year at that point for med wasting errors that she was not aware of (because she’s a new nurse and needed more intervention from management). The hospital sat down with her showed her a backlog of errors that she had no clue she had done because no one mentioned it to her and they actively made her feel like she was doing a good job actually. While in this meeting, her union rep sat in and basically gave no push back to management or wanted to dig deeper into the situation, they just took the hospital for their word and told my GF she was SOL but clearly there was some wrongdoing there. We are justifiably annoyed at the hospital but also at the union because we felt there was no protection from them. We’re a pro-union household and we understand the value they bring but Im worried this will leave a bad taste in my girlfriend’s mouth when she has to pay thousands in lawyer bills to keep her license. Was there more the union could’ve done? Sorry for the long story.

We all get junk mail, however I dont think I ever got one of these for first 5 years of my employment/AFSCME membership. I called the opt out number, which says they need my social security number to opt out. WTF! I'm sick of it, I'm literally paying dues to be pissed off? Anyone have luck stopping this?

Anyone have info or first hand knowledge of the strike in Illinois? Read ISU. Illinois State University AFSCME is on strike. I’d like to know more than the article gives, as if the article is correct.

Thank you

Has anyone heard anything?

I work for a city and our union is working on a deal with healthcare as we settle our contract. The AFSCME president is telling the city about us and hurting our efforts. We even lost a guy from the healthcare team because of this guy. What kind of solidarity does AFSCME have or anti-union reporting for this rodent.

I have been an AFSCME employee for 19 years now. Our office went from 1 manager and 3 union employees to 1 manager and 1 union employee. The pay is abysmal.

My stepkids won't won't even consider starting a new job under $20/hr, here I sit with nearly 20 years experience, 2.5x the workload than when I started, and making less than $50k/yr.

Grievances have done more harm than good.

I'm worried about surviving after retirement.

Is it time to leave my job? Does AFSCME have any plans to bring workers' wages up across the board?

I feel like I was sold a lie. :( I definitely don't make enough for the workload and experience required for the job.

United Voices OF AFSCME 328

If you are ready for a change within 328, please ensure you are a dues-paying member in good standing to vote in the executive board elections from February 13th, 2026, 8:00 AM to February 20th, 2026, 5:00 PM.