Kaiser Permanente again presents a comprehensive proposal 

This message was sent on behalf of Lionel Sims, 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 Wednesday, March 4.

To our mental health and addiction medicine professionals,

Kaiser Permanente and the National Union of Healthcare Workers bargaining teams met on Thursday, January 29; Tuesday, February 10; and Friday, February 27, to continue negotiations for a new contract for our Northern California mental health and addiction medicine employees.

The following are highlights from the last 3 sessions

• On January 29, we reached a tentative agreement on Safety (Article 34), where we agreed to provide the following to our clinicians: the workplace violence policy, local facility safety plans, and policies and procedures for addressing patients who pose a threat.
• On February 27, Kaiser Permanente presented its third comprehensive proposal, which included tentative agreements to date as well as proposals and responses for all remaining open items. As a reminder, our proposal includes an increase over our previously proposed across-the-board increases, moving from 17% to 17.5% over 4 years.
• The latest iteration of our comprehensive proposal includes language that addresses on-call time. We are proposing that we maintain the current contract language for the duration of the next contract.
• We confirmed 3 additional bargaining dates in March: Thursday, March 12; Wednesday, March 25; and Tuesday, March 31.

A note on artificial intelligence

At the bargaining table and beyond, the union has perpetuated the false narrative that we want to replace our valued mental health clinicians with artificial intelligence, or AI. At Kaiser Permanente, AI does not replace human assessment, and it does not make care decisions. Our care teams are always at the center of decision-making with our patients. However, AI tools do have the potential to help our clinicians spend more time focused on serving our members and patients. Our objective is to reach an agreement that honors our clinicians and allows space for the potential of technology that can support them.

An unnecessary distraction from negotiations

We received notice for a one-day strike to take place on Wednesday, March 18, at 6 a.m., ending on Thursday, March 19, at 6 a.m.

Our priority is reaching an agreement that affords us the flexibility to improve access for our members and continue to optimize care. To better address the growing need for mental health care, we must move away from outdated restrictions that limit our ability to introduce new patients to available clinicians, redefine indirect patient care time to balance clinician support and patient care needs, and leverage our external network without constraint to ensure patients get care when and where they need it.

The path forward

The next bargaining session will take place on Thursday, March 12, and our goal remains to reach an agreement that delivers on our commitment to providing excellent mental health care to members and patients while remaining a best place to work for mental health professionals.

Thank you for your ongoing commitment to our members and patients.

For more information, visit  kp.org/nuhwbargaining.