AAUP Oregon Stands in Solidarity with Striking Workers at St. Charles Medical Center

March 9, 2021

Dear Members of AFT Local 5017:

The American Association of University Professors of Oregon (AAUP Oregon) represents thousands of faculty, academic professionals, and graduate employees at universities and colleges throughout Oregon.

We send our wholehearted solidarity as you fight for a just and fair contract. The actions of management are shortsighted; their myopia hurts you and all of the patients seeking care at St. Charles Medical Center.

As medical therapists, technicians, and technologists of St. Charles Medical Center we respect your right to strike over unfair pay, working conditions, and we find the unwillingness of management to settle a fair contract shameful. As upper healthcare management salaries skyrocketed in recent years, we know that the stalled wages and difficult working conditions remain a serious injustice. That management has delayed justice is shameful.

You all are heroes during the pandemic and we at AAUP Oregon stand with you in your determination to be treated with dignity and respect. We urge the hospital to settle this contract and initiate changes that treat you with the dignity that you deserve and patients need to thrive.

In solidarity,                                                     

Michael Dreiling

President, AAUP-Oregon