Kaiser Permanente union authorizes strike vote amid stalled contract negotiations

Leaders of a union representing 24,000 nurses and different healthcare professionals have approved a member vote to strike in opposition to Kaiser Permanente after negotiations stalled on a contract set to run out on the finish of the month.

The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Well being Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) stated in an announcement that Kaiser affiliate management unanimously determined to name the member vote Thursday night time.

The group additionally notified (PDF) Kaiser’s management that it might instantly be halting its participation in partnership actions, comparable to office security committees and labor-management partnership councils.

UNAC/UHCP is certainly one of 21 bargaining teams within the Alliance of Well being Care Unions (AHCU) negotiating nationwide contracts with the California-based built-in care supplier. The events have participated in a labor administration partnership for the final 24 years that UNAC/UHCP warned is now “on life assist.”

The disagreement between the union and Kaiser centered on the latter’s proposal of a 1% elevate for nurses and different healthcare employees in addition to a brand new worker cost plan that UNAC/UHCP stated will in the end result in decrease compensation.

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These proposed phrases come at a time when the vast majority of UNAC/UHCP membership say they’re experiencing psychological well being considerations primarily pushed by staffing points. With the COVID-19 pandemic nonetheless in full swing, the phrases could be “sure to make staffing shortages worse” as workers weigh their present roles in opposition to sign-on bonuses and different incentives being supplied at different well being methods, the union wrote.

“At their coronary heart, Kaiser Permanente’s proposals assault the elemental precept of equity on the job: equal pay for equal work,” Joe Guzynski, govt director of UNAC/UHCP and a chief negotiator on the union’s bargaining staff, stated in an announcement. “How are you going to recruit nurses for those who try this? How are you going to guard affected person care for those who don’t spend money on those that present it?”

The final scheduled negotiations between AHCU and Kaiser concluded Sept. 10, and, as of Friday, there have been no new dates scheduled earlier than the Sept. 30 contract expiration date, Guzynski stated.

UNAC/UHCP’s assertion additionally highlighted Kaiser’s reported $2.2 billion in 2020 working earnings—a constructive money circulation development that has solely accelerated in 2021.

In an emailed response assertion, Kaiser Permanente Senior Vice President of Human Assets Arlene Peasnall acknowledged the elevated pressure on front-line employees and stated the group has offered practically $600 million in worker help for the reason that begin of the pandemic.

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She additionally famous that Kaiser paid out 100% or extra of all eligible union-represented workers’ efficiency bonuses final 12 months, which amounted to “hundreds of {dollars} an individual on common” and will have been diminished by pandemic disruption.

Nevertheless, the system’s proposed contract is constrained by the “more and more unaffordable” value of healthcare, greater than half of which is because of escalating wages, Peasnall stated. Kaiser workers which might be represented by AHCU already earn 26% above the common market wage, she stated.

“On August 25, we supplied a proposal that features wage will increase for all present workers and no modifications to the present retirement plan,” she stated. “It additionally ensures no wage cuts for present workers. These will increase are on high of the already market-leading pay and advantages our workers obtain, as confirmed by impartial wage surveys and the federal government’s personal knowledge compiled by [the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services].

“To assist handle future prices and guarantee we proceed to be reasonably priced for our members, we’re proposing a market-based compensation construction for these employed in 2023 and past that can permit our new workers to be paid above market wages on common, enabling us to proceed attracting and retaining high expertise,” she stated.

The union disagreed on the proposed compensation construction’s impression, describing it as “a fancy system tied to a defective market wage research” that might result in “large cuts by 2023” and “hamstring future hiring.”

“Altering wages goes to harm Kaiser in the long term since you’re going to see it impression the usual of affected person care,” Mortgage Nguyen, an occupational therapist at Kaiser Permanente Riverside and an UNAC/UHCP member, stated in an announcement from the union. “It’s going to decrease skilled requirements and affected person entry.”

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Peasnall stated Kaiser is interested by persevering with talks and has known as on union leaders “to proceed to work constructively towards an settlement, slightly than name on nurses to stroll away from sufferers who want them throughout this pandemic.”

The union, in the meantime, characterised the disagreement as the newest disintegration of a labor administration partnership that each side stated has lengthy served as a nationwide mannequin for profitable collaboration between labor and administration.

“Kaiser Permanente has stepped again from the ideas of partnership for a while now … they usually have violated the letter of our partnership settlement within the lead as much as our current negotiations,” UNAC/UHCP President Denise Duncan stated in an announcement. “Regardless of that, we’re right here and able to collaborate once more if KP leaders discover their approach again to the trail—the place affected person care is the true north in our price compass, and every part else falls in line behind that precept. Affected person care is Kaiser Permanente’s core enterprise, or no less than we thought so.”

Kaiser and its unions confronted the same roadblock throughout 2019’s contract negotiations however had been in the end capable of keep away from a strike.

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In the meantime, the greater than 5,000-strong Oregon Federation of Nurses and Well being Professionals is planning a rally at a Kaiser location in assist of “secure staffing, a good union contract and a voice for each sufferers and care employees.” It’s scheduled for Sept. 28.

On Sunday the system additionally addressed a piece stoppage amongst The Worldwide Union of Working Engineers – Native 39 Stationary Engineers that started on Saturday at a few of its Northern California amenities.

That group is presently in contract bargaining with the system, having met an settlement on solely three particular contract provisions. Kaiser stated that it’s “in search of no takeaways in our contract proposal” that would supply a mean improve of $3,600 per worker per 12 months, and equally pointed to the elevated prices of healthcare and difficulties sustaining reasonably priced look after membership.