Key proposals reintroduced at NUHW bargaining

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 Thursday, October 2.

To our mental health and addiction medicine professionals,

Kaiser Permanente and the National Union of Healthcare Workers met on Tuesday, September 30, to continue negotiating a new agreement for our Northern California mental health and addiction medicine professionals.

We remain committed to reaching an agreement that provides flexibility to meet our members’ needs and expectations, while also supporting you — our therapists — and maintaining Kaiser Permanente as a best place to receive and provide high-quality mental health care.

Additional tentative agreement reached, continued exchange of proposals

We reached a tentative agreement on Article 14: Assistants. Together, we agreed to extend the time allotment for licensure from 2.5 years to 3 years, which allows associates to accrue additional paid-time off and education hours in support of their journey to licensure. NUHW verbally agreed to our proposal.

We revised our Patient Access proposal, which was first shared on August 26, to respond to feedback from the union. NUHW also presented proposals, including a counter to Article 15 — Professional Hours, which we will respond to.

The union presented a counter to our wage proposal. Our August 12 proposal includes 17% across-the-board increases over 4 years. We are considering their proposal and will respond in an upcoming session.

We need the flexibility of our internal and external networks to meet patient needs

We have continued to demonstrate our commitment and significant investment in building the pipeline of mental health professionals to meet the continuing increase in demand for care. We, in fact, have more therapists today than we did a year ago, adding 103 licensed mental health clinicians in Northern California between March 31, 2024, and March 31, 2025, bringing our headcount from 2,887 to 2,990. Currently, we also have more than 100 open positions for licensed mental health professionals in Northern California, demonstrating our ongoing commitment.

In addition to our internal network, we are also reliant on our external provider network to meet the continuing increase in demand for mental health services amid an ongoing nationwide shortage of qualified mental health professionals. Today, about half of our patients are seen by an external provider, which has contributed to our success in managing access and successfully meeting the needs of our patients.

We are bargaining in good faith while ensuring continuity of care

In bargaining Tuesday, September 30, there were comments about Kaiser Permanente’s strike contingency planning and an implication that this signals a lack of commitment to reaching agreement in a timely fashion. Ensuring our patients have continuity of care is not only the right thing to do but is a requirement of the California Department of Managed Health Care. We want to be clear that this is standard practice in health care and other industries, and our preparation to ensure our patients receive the care they need during a potential work stoppage has no bearing on our steadfast commitment to reaching an agreement that works for everyone involved.

Ongoing dialogue and multiple proposal exchanges are part of the process

Renegotiating contracts with many substantive changes takes time and the process can seem protracted. While we aim to make timely progress, multifaceted and lengthy content additions require time to assess and respond.

We will continue to come to the table to bargain in good faith and with a collaborative approach despite the expiration of the contract.

We have bargaining dates scheduled through October, and NUHW requested additional dates into November. We will work with them to secure those sessions. The next scheduled sessions are on Friday, October 3, and Tuesday, October 7.

Thank you for your continued commitment to our members and patients. Your work is important and appreciated.

For more information, visit kp.org/nuhwbargaining.