Workers At Oregon State Hospital Protest

I participated in the march and worker action at the State Hospital yesterday. The Statesman Journal did a mostly good article on the action and you can read that article here.

The protest was the result of justifiable and long-standing grievances felt by many workers at the State Hospital, but it's clear that the lead issue now and the spark for the protests is low staffing and a management team who are not addressing the issues faced by staff and patients in acceptable and concrete ways. The protest followed by one day a program on OPB dealing with some of these problems and featuring a representative of Oregon NAMI. Clearly OSH is at the center of a wide public debate and scrutiny and the management team at OSH has been unable to deflect this unwanted attention.

The problems at OSH are bigger than the institution, of course. The on-going state budget and economic crisis have squeezed each state agency's budget and have forced workers to take furlough days. In operations which run around the clock the state budget crisis and the furlough days have created particular problems which state government has been unable to address. These problems will continue so long as unemployment and under-employment, home foreclosures and underfunding for social services remain in place.

The protest took an unexpected turn when workers and allies marched into one of the OSH administration buildings as part of their protest. Once again we see that many workers will push the envelope if the issues are right, if they have support and if there is a sense of movement and militancy. The local union leaders at OSH once more have shown how to lead a fight for services and workers' rights. Their challenge now is to deepen their support with their co-workers and continue to push forward.

The OSH workers now have to decide what to do next. There are indications that their protests have gotten management's attention and their demands can win broad public support.

As socialists we want to see the broadest possible unity in place to support the workers and the patients and a path open which will allow society to rethink how mental health, healthcare and crime are thought about and dealt with. The present system is broken and flawed.