Bargaining update: September 4, 2024

Below is a summary of the proposals exchanged in bargaining yesterday that includes two tentative agreements on minor issues, three counter proposals by management, and the five remaining economic proposals we gave Kaiser. But first, we want to tell you about what transpired at the end of the day.

After a nearly two hour caucus, the Employer returned at 4:30 to give us a new proposal on Patient Management Time (PMT), as well as their proposal for wage increases.  The first thing we noted as unacceptable was that their PMT proposal did not address workload and staffing issues for social medicine, home care services, Psychiatric RNs or addiction medicine, as our proposal does.

After carefully reading their proposal and asking clarifying questions, we got management to admit that while their proposal would increase the available PMT for adult and family/child therapists to 5 hours per week for a 40 hour employee, it would also allow management to use any or all of this time for training and administrative work, or for scheduling patients whenever “access” is not being met.  Management tried to downplay this point and we are sure their internal and external communications will only mention how “generous” they are for offering more PMT and “memorialize” it in the contract.. We made it clear that we are expecting to be treated the same as our Northern California counterparts, who average 7 hours of PMT that cannot be used for training and admin duties and that management cannot book into.

Their wage proposal was even more insulting.  Based on a proposed four year contract, they are offering wage increases for each of the four years of 4%, 3%, 3%, and 3%. This is 2% less for each year than they recently agreed to with the Coalition Unions, who got 6%, 5%, 5% and 5% increases. They gave us this proposal after we had earlier in the day explained that our wage proposal (see below) was made to eliminate the gap between other union contracts (including our NUHW-IBHS contract in NorCal) and ours. Instead, Kaiser’s proposals widen the gap.

These two proposals are symptomatic of Kaiser’s disrespect for our patients, our professions and the work we do as therapists, medical social workers, psychologists and registered nurses.

Let Kaiser management know this is unacceptable. If you haven’t already done so, sign on to our Strike Authorization Petition using your unique ID, which is .

Summary of Proposals made during negotiations on September 4, 2024

At bargaining yesterday we gave Kaiser the remainder of all of our economic proposals:

• Retirement Benefits – Our proposal removes the inferior defined contribution plan and replaces it with the pension plan for all current and future employees, not just those hired before 2015. Current employees would receive service and vesting credits for the pension plan based on their date of hire and any funds in the Defined Contribution Plan would be transferred to a retirement savings account for each employee.  We told management it was indefensible for Kaiser to continue to deny this benefit that is offered to almost every other KP employee in the country.  We explained how not having the pension affects recruitment and retention, how it undermines their Mental Health Scholars program when Kaiser employees find out they have to give up their pension, and how it impacts RN recruitment, when all other Kaiser RNs have a pension.  We exhorted KP’s bargaining team to impress upon the decision makers how important this issue is to all of us.
• Health & Welfare Benefits – We are proposing improved dental coverage. Several of us spoke to the challenges we face in receiving appropriate dental care and coverage. We are also proposing reduced copays in line with other unions at KP and employer funded healthcare reimbursement to cover the costs of things like out of pocket dental care.
• Earned Time Off – We proposed adding President’s Day (a Holiday in Northern California) and the latest Federal holiday Juneteenth. We suggested that as a company which emphasizes diversity, equity and inclusion, Kaiser should embrace allowing its employees a day off to celebrate this important holiday.  We also clarified holiday pay language and proposed an accelerated accumulation of earned time off so that new employees would get an extra week of ETO after one year, instead of waiting four.
• Retiree Medical Benefits – We asked for the same enhancements the coalition unions received last year, which include increased contributions to an HRA account and coverage under the best available Senior Advantage Plan, instead of the inferior plan.
• Wage Increases– When presenting our wage proposal, we went over the 14 year history of the Psych-Social bargaining unit, where at the beginning there had been several years of wage freezes and in subsequent years, Kaiser, after settling our contract, offered other unions higher wage increases than ours.  We did the math and showed the total increase in service and tech workers’ wages since 2010 compared to the total increase in our wages during the same period, demonstrating that we would need a 20.4% increase in the first year to make up for the disparity, and a 5% increase in each subsequent year.  Which is why we proposed increases over a three year term of 20%, 5% and 5%. We stressed that we are not only trying to achieve parity with our Northern California counterparts, but also to have Kaiser stop undervaluing our professions compared to the medical side of the house.  We also suggested that low pay for our professions is in part due to systemic gender inequity that undervalues professions that are predominantly non-male, and that Kaiser is in a unique position to lead an effort to change this.
• Other Compensation – We proposed two additional longevity steps, 20 years and 25 years, similar to what other unions have. We proposed that the advance hiring criteria more closely reflect the years of experience someone has when taking a new position at Kaiser, to improve recruitment and retention.  We also proposed Psych RNs who have a BA degree be given credit for 1 year of experience, like other Kaiser nurses.  We proposed an increase in stand-by pay from $12/hour to 50% of ones base wage rate, similar to our NUHW-IBHS colleagues in Northern California

Prior to sharing our economic proposal, Kaiser gave us counter-proposals on Reasonable Accommodations, Preceptors, and Flexible Schedules. The first of these counters closely matched our proposal and is not controversial. As for Preceptors, they agreed to have preceptors, but differed on the selection process.  We had polite discussion about this and will give them a revised proposal next time.

The Employer’s proposal on Flexible Schedules was really a non-proposal, as they admitted it was a reflection of management’s current practice related to flexible and hybrid schedules. We made it clear that current practice is insufficient, in particular for our RN, Social Medicine and Care at Home members who currently have had limited opportunities to work hybrid or flexible schedules. Management seemed willing to consider a collaborative approach for making hybrid and flexible work schedules more widely available. We will have further discussions on this topic at our next session.

We signed tentative agreements on Seniority Policies and Distribution of Agreement. The most significant change reflected in these agreements is language that allows employees who leave Kaiser and return within two years to resume their seniority where they left off.

While no proposals were exchanged on the Professional Hours article of the contract, we brought up the issue because several Area Director’s are twisting the current language in the contract to discourage part-time employees from using “professional time,” implying they will not be paid for partial day absences, when legally, the Employer must pay them. The Employer’s response has been irksome, as they continue to refuse to clarify the language in the contract that managers are twisting.

Upcoming bargaining dates are September 16, September 24 and September 30. All of these bargaining sessions are in person at the Glendale Hilton, located at    . We ask members who wish to attend to arrive no later than 9:45 a.m.  We may also be scheduling an additional bargaining session next week and will keep you updated.