Nurses Approve New Three-Year Contract With Kaiser Permanente
Thousands of nurses employed by 61 Kaiser Permanente facilities in Northern California have approved a new three-year contract with the health care system, according to an announcement from the California Nurses Association, the Sacramento Bee reports (Calvan, Sacramento Bee, 2/11).
Union officials said the pact was ratified by 99% of nurses who voted in a series of meetings since last month (Rauber, San Francisco Business Times, 2/10).
Contract Details
The agreement, which covers 17,000 nurses, includes:
- 5% annual pay increases;
- A no-cancellations policy protecting nurses from being called off-duty at the last minute;
- Full protection of all existing health benefits, retirement health benefits and pensions;
- Guaranteed fixed schedules to protect against arbitrary changes in nurse scheduling; and
- Provisions for more rapid management responses to staffing disputes.
The contract is retroactive to Sept. 1, 2010, and runs through December 2014 (Robertson, Sacramento Business Journal, 2/10).
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