As more than 2,200 NUHW mental health professionals in Southern California begin contract negotiations with Kaiser Permanente, they know that organized labor is fully behind their drive for a fair contract.
During the California Labor Federation’s annual convention earlier this month in San Diego, delegates unanimously passed a resolution that criticizes Kaiser for reducing the amount of time therapists in Southern California have for critical patient care duties and calls on the HMO to reach an agreement that treats Southern California mental health professionals on par with their counterparts throughout the state.
“It means a lot to know that unions across California are invested in our fight for a fair contract,” said Martha Ton, a marriage and family therapist for Kaiser in Orange County. “We’re determined to win a contract that will treat us and all Kaiser patients fairly, and we’re excited to have organized labor on our side.”
Last year, the California Department of Managed Health Care fined Kaiser $50 million for violating state mental health parity laws and ordered Kaiser to spend an additional $150 million on programs aimed at improving access to mental health care statewide.
The HMO is currently working with the agency on a Corrective Action Plan to address systemic deficiencies in its mental health care system that has frequently forced patients to wait weeks or months for therapy sessions.
However, instead of taking measures to improve access to care in Southern California, Kaiser has unilaterally reduced the amount of time that therapists have to do critical patient care tasks, such as responding to patient calls and emails, communicating with social service agencies, and making notes in patient charts.
As part of their bargaining platform, mental health professionals in Southern California are seeking the same amount of Patient Management Time as their counterparts receive in Northern California as well as comparable salaries and benefits, including pensions, which Kaiser eliminated for incoming behavioral healthcare workers in Southern California nearly a decade ago.
“Kaiser will never be able to address the deficiencies in its behavioral healthcare system as long as it insists on providing lower pay and poorer benefits to its mental health professionals in Southern California,” NUHW President Sophia Mendoza said. “Unions across the state understand the stakes of this contract negotiation, and we’re excited that they stand with us 100 percent.”
The Labor Federation resolution calls on Kaiser “to reverse its unilateral cut to Patient Management Time throughout Kaiser’s Southern California region, provide its therapists in Southern California the same amount of Patient Management Time as its therapists in Northern California, and ensure that all of its mental health professionals have sufficient time to complete all of their patient care and administrative tasks.”
It also states that the California Labor Federation “stands in solidarity with the NUHW Kaiser Permanente Psych-Social Chapter members across Southern California as they prepare to negotiate a collective bargaining agreement aimed at establishing true equity for mental health professionals and their patients in Kaiser’s Southern California region.”
