Bargaining continues with meaningful exchange of proposals

This message was sent on behalf of Lionel Sims, interim senior vice president, Human Resources, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals; and Priya Smith, chief employee human resources officer, The Permanente Medical Group; to Kaiser Permanente’s Northern California mental health and addiction medicine professionals on Friday, September 26.      

To our mental health and addiction medicine professionals,

For the past 11 weeks, we have been negotiating in good faith with the National Union of Healthcare Workers with the goal of reaching a fair, mutually beneficial agreement that supports both our mental health and addiction medicine care professionals and Kaiser Permanente members and patients. Thursday, September 25, marked our 12th bargaining session.

Our focus throughout negotiations is to maintain the ability to meet our members’ needs and expectations and support our therapists as we continue to experience notable increases in the demand for mental health care and an evolving environment. 

Session marked by exchange of proposals and dialogue

Yesterday, both Kaiser Permanente and NUHW continued to exchange proposals, resulting in a productive bargaining session. 

Kaiser Permanente put forward 4 proposals, which included clarity on partial days off so we can ensure patient appointments are supported. This includes coordination between therapists and managers as part of professional hours in Article 15.

We also discussed the grievance process. The NUHW bargaining team proposed bypassing a step to escalate a grievance at multiple facilities; we countered that if a grievance affects more than 4 facilities, it would progress to the next step in the grievance process.  

We heard the NUHW bargaining team’s proposal for a significant increase in paid union representatives for stewards training. We support the spirit of this and must balance this against our operational goals. We countered with support for additional paid training, as long as there are no more than 3 stewards absent from one worksite at the same time. 

NUHW also provided proposals, covering a variety of topics, including licensure time frames, the defined contribution plan, telecommuting agreements and change processes, wage topics around differentials and longevity, and performance bonuses.

We will consider each proposal and respond in our next sessions.

We continue to await a response from NUHW regarding the wage proposal we presented on August 12, which includes 17% across-the-board wage increases over 4 years, maintaining our mental health professionals’ standing as among the highest paid in Northern California. We are also awaiting a response from the union on 9 other proposals.

The next bargaining sessions are on Tuesday, September 30, and Friday, October 3.

Thank you for all you do each day to care for our members and patients.

For more information, visit kp.org/nuhwbargaining.