Three tentative agreements were reached during the initial bargaining sessions with Kaiser Permanente of Southern California.
On Wednesday, July 31, NUHW and Kaiser Permanente kicked off the first 2 days of bargaining to establish a new agreement with our Psych-Social Chapter employees. Kaiser Permanente is committed to reaching a mutually beneficial agreement that demonstrates the respect and value we have for our mental health and addiction medicine clinicians. This includes building on the highly competitive wages, benefits, and environment that maintain our position as a great place to work and to receive mental health and addiction medicine care.
Bargaining began on a positive note with both sides agreeing to a set of ground rules to guide discussions for current and future meetings. Next, NUHW presented a thorough, noneconomic proposal. While wages and benefits were not part of this offer, the package as it was presented had the potential for economic impact on the organization.
Following discussion of this proposal at the table, Kaiser Permanente’s team met in caucus to begin an in-depth review of the proposal’s details. Both sides reconvened briefly in the afternoon for management questions about the proposal. This was followed by another management caucus that continued through the end of the bargaining day.
Day 2 of bargaining showed continued progress. Kaiser Permanente and NUHW reached 3 tentative agreements related to:
Additionally, Kaiser Permanente presented counterproposals on 2 components in NUHW’s proposal — associates and transfer policies.
The parties discussed at length their perspectives on patient management time, or PMT, and continued talks on Kaiser Permanente’s counterproposals.
The second day of bargaining ended following a clarification request regarding the planned operability for the union’s PMT model. Talks on this issue will continue at the next session.
The next scheduled bargaining dates are: