January 21, 2026
Moving forward
Local bargaining is the right path to delivering wage increases and enhanced benefits for Alliance-represented employees.
This message from Greg Holmes, executive vice president and chief human resources officer, was sent to Alliance-represented employees on Wednesday, January 21.
Since last May, we’ve been focused on good-faith bargaining with the Alliance of Health Care Unions to reach a new contract for you. Despite more than 1,000 bargaining sessions and our historic wage proposal, there has been no real movement on economic issues at the national table since the contract expired in September.
The truth is we’ve made substantial progress, including economic progress with individual unions at the local tables. Unfortunately, at the national level, much of the effort and activity by the Alliance or certain members has consisted of non‑partnership actions that undermine the purpose of national bargaining, including:
- The recent attempt by UNAC/UHCP to coerce an agreement by threatening to release information of purportedly unlawful and unethical conduct to gain concessions at the national bargaining table
- Corporate campaign tactics designed to drive patients and health plan members away from Kaiser Permanente
- Instructing employees to withhold information about union strike intentions for the purpose of confusing Kaiser Permanente and interfering with operations, although employees have the right to volunteer that information
- Directing employees to refrain from participating in activities where the objective is to achieve and maintain market-leading competitive performance
Now with a third strike looming and UNAC/UCHP at the center of most open issues and non-partnership activity, we don’t see a path to an agreement through national bargaining. The best path forward is to move open issues to individual unions in local bargaining where we believe we can work together and reach agreement at those tables.
At this point, engagement with each union in local bargaining is the right path forward to a new contract, raises, and enhanced benefits.
We’ve already concluded bargaining on all local issues with more than half of the local bargaining tables. The Labor Management Partnership Agreement does not require national bargaining, and it does not make sense to return to a process that has been stalled for months. This plan moves all open issues at the national table to each local table and individual union.
Read this flyer to better understand what this path forward is, and what it isn’t.
The National Agreement will still be honored.
It simply means that proposals affecting bargaining units that have not been agreed to at the national table will move to their respective local bargaining tables. This includes UNAC/UHCP. We have reached out to share this with your union leaders.
Over 3 months without a contract is long enough. We are submitting legal documents to proceed, avoid further delays, and support a smooth, fair process for everyone. Through local bargaining, we can focus on finalizing agreements that recognize your hard work, while supporting affordable, high-quality patient care.
We hope UNAC/UHCP will focus on meeting us back at local tables rather than on an open-ended strike that will serve no one’s interest. Work stoppages needlessly disrupt nonurgent patient care, create uncertainty for the communities we serve, and delay your contract even further.
Thank you for your dedication to Kaiser Permanente’s mission and for the exceptional care you provide our members and patients.
