Bargaining yesterday began with Kaiser management giving us two written proposals, which amounted to repeating their rejection of several of our proposals, including those to:

• Address workload issue for medical social workers and Psych RN’s
• Establish a staffing committee to resolve short staffing issues
• Eliminate language that forces part time employees to take on additional shifts

After hearing this discouraging news, we presented revised proposals on Preceptors and on Flexible Schedules which we hope will bring us close to resolution on those issues. We also reached a tentative agreement on non-controversial language added to the Non-Discrimination clause.

After a caucus and just before lunch, management regaled us with a counterproposal on Regional Professional Practice Committees (RPPCs), which establishes three new RPPCs, one for Social Medicine, one for Home Care and one larger one for Psych/Addiction Medicine. While we welcome this positive movement, it does not outweigh the overall negative responses we have been getting on major issues.

A prime example of management pushback on important issues came in the afternoon, when we presented a revised proposal on Patient Management Time (PMT) for Psychiatry and Addiction Medicine departments.  Our proposal does not allow management to book into PMT under any circumstance and spells out a formula to determine the amount of PMT based on the number of appointments.

While management acknowledged they understood we are asking for more PMT and that PMT be protected, they insisted our proposal was too complicated and they couldn’t figure out how to “operationalize” it. We would not accept this lame excuse and told them we could help them figure it out, or they could give us a counter proposal that contained both protected and more PMT and we would consider it.

We have now had seven sessions of bargaining, and with only three more scheduled, we are still waiting for responses on all economic proposals and other important issues. The sense we got yesterday is that they still won’t have responses when we meet tomorrow.  In fact, they asked us to give them a counter proposal to the ridiculous wage proposal they gave us last time.

Before Kaiser will make any substantial movement we may have to give them a ten day notice of our intent to strike.  Even though we have more than enough signatures than we need to give notice now, the earliest we would do this is October 1st. And the more who sign on to the strike authorization petition by then, the more likely Kaiser will settle with us to avert a strike

So, If you haven’t already done so, sign on to our Strike Authorization Petition using your unique ID, which is .

Member Resources

Find bargaining and campaign updates as well as resources, guides and materials to help you prepare for a strike and even start your own private practice, find temp work, and build up a hardship fund on our NUHW Kaiser Member Resources Website.