KAISER PERMANENTE: Reaches Contract Agreement With Unions
Kaiser Permanente has reached a five-year contract agreement with a group of 25 AFL-CIO unions that will provide its health care workers with increased pay and improved health and pension benefits, the San Francisco Chronicle reports. Sal Rosselli, president of the Service Employees International Union, Kaiser's largest union, said the agreement was unprecedented because it calls for workers to hold seats on "powerful advisory committees." Under the agreement, vocational nurses, lab technicians and support staff will have a stronger say in deciding staffing levels at Kaiser hospitals and medical centers. Rosselli added, "Kaiser believes that to be the health care provider of choice they have to give workers a voice" in administering health care. Some other provisions of the agreement, which will affect 64,000 workers nationwide, include:
- a minimum 4% across-the-board annual salary increase and up to 6% for some nurses and physician's assistants;
- a "performance-sharing" arrangement that would allow workers to receive up to 3% in additional pay if Kaiser reaches set "financial targets" (Abate, 9/20);
- the establishment of a "joint labor-management trust fund" to facilitate the partnership.
Walkout Planned
Amidst the announcement of the Kaiser contract agreement, SEIU officials called for another one-day walkout in three Bay Area hospitals today. The strike is part of a continuing attempt by the union to get workers more say in staffing decisions at some hospitals. Union officials are demanding that an outside arbitrator be used to decide matters "when labor representatives and management representatives on [advisory] committees disagree." The strike will affect three Catholic Healthcare West-operated facilities -- St. Mary's Medical Center and Saint Francis Memorial Hospital in San Francisco and Seton Medical Center in Daly City. CHW spokesperson Robert Polzoni said, "What [the unions] want and what we will never agree to is binding arbitration if there is a failure to agree." Union officials hope that the Kaiser contract will force other employers, like CHW, to give workers more control in day-to-day decisions (San Francisco Chronicle, 9/20).