October 28, 2024
Kaiser Permanente concentrates on producing a new contract
NUHW’s performance is not moving us forward.
In the midst of the strike, Kaiser Permanente and NUHW held 2 additional bargaining sessions on October 23 and 25. After 2 full days of bargaining only 2 new tentative agreements were reached, bringing the total tentative agreements to just 13. Reaching such a low number of agreements after 4 months and 20 bargaining sessions demonstrates NUHW’s lack of sincere engagement in the bargaining process.
Kaiser Permanente stays focused on reaching a new contract
Kaiser Permanente continued efforts to advance bargaining by making movement on a series of counterproposals. These proposals further enrich the strong offer we proposed several bargaining sessions ago. The counterproposals included:
- Improved Bilingual Differential: Increased to $1.25 per hour, recognizing the important work that our bilingual professionals do to ensure we are serving our diverse population of patients.
- New: Preceptor Pay: An additional $1.25 per hour, recognizing our mental health professionals who invest their time in supporting the growth of our workforce.
- Education Leave: Increase in maximum rollover to accumulate up to 10 days, a 60% increase over the current maximum.
- Tuition Reimbursement: An increase in allowance for travel to $1,000.
We also restated positions on 16 economic and noneconomic issues. Kaiser Permanente’s bargaining team continues to be actively engaged, despite many of its original members taking on critical care delivery roles under our care continuity plan to help ensure that the NUHW strike does not disrupt our patients’ care.
NUHW’s performance at the bargaining table remains unchanged
NUHW presented the 5 counterproposals below. These counterproposals do not materially advance us toward reaching an agreement.
- Compensation
- Differentials
- Workload Distribution
- Copays, Life Insurance, and ADD Insurance Benefits
- ETO (Earned Time Off)
At this point in our bargaining, we should have narrowed the number of issues to be finalized; reached more tentative agreements; and be focused on bargaining about the remaining major issues deemed vital by both sides of the table. But NUHW is unchanged in their bargaining approach — continuing its record of not seriously engaging in the discussion and depth of work needed to reach an agreement in a timely way. In the midst of a strike with only 2 days to bargain, the union brought in 68 people to give speeches in place of active bargaining at the table.
Kaiser Permanente has 2 major areas of concern with NUHW's current proposals. The first is the union's requests for — and lack of movement on — wages. Kaiser Permanente pays our mental health workers on average 18% above market in Southern California and has proposed an additional increase of 18% over 4 years with continued eligibility for a $5,000 annual incentive bonus. The union is proposing a 28% increase over 3 years. This increase is unreasonable and makes it that much more difficult to keep health care affordable for our members. Additionally, NUHW's proposal for Protected Time for Planning and Preparation would result in a full-time therapist spending nearly 50% of their weekly work time not seeing patients.
NUHW is not acting in the best interest of our patients and their approach at the bargaining table is not producing the best results for the employees they represent. Please encourage NUHW union leaders to engage at the table to reach an agreement.
No new bargaining dates have been scheduled at this point. We remain committed to reaching an agreement and will work with NUHW to schedule additional bargaining dates. We will update you as new dates are scheduled.
