Just like last Friday, Kaiser came to the table today without any proposals. We reminded them that we were expecting a proposal on pension, and their chief negotiator’s response was: “we do not plan to change our retirement plans.” They refused to explain why they were unwilling to offer 1716 of our 2386 members the same benefit as nearly 180,000 other Kaiser employees in California. We emphasized that this is a strike issue, but they seemingly don’t believe us.
Not only is Kaiser management ignoring the pension issue, they have yet to agree to address workload and staffing issues and have not responded to most other economic issues. In fact, with less than two weeks before a potential strike, we have 24 remaining open issues.
This is why we will be giving Kaiser our strike notice on Thursday and why we are asking everyone to sign up for picket shifts now, using your unique ID. If we have to strike, having strong picket lines with maximum participation will help us get a settlement quicker.
We do not take striking lightly, and we will be making proposals over the next week with the goal of reaching an agreement that addresses our major issues. In that vein, we gave Kaiser a revised proposal today on Workload and Patient Management Time. We also gave revised proposals on longevity steps, dental benefits and the student loan repayment program.
Kaiser did end up giving us one proposal in the midafternoon, modifying its proposal on the incentive plan metrics for Addiction Medicine and Social Medicine. We caucused and responded promptly with a revised proposal on metrics for all disciplines.
Additional bargaining dates added
In addition to the previously scheduled bargaining dates of October 8 and 10, we agreed to add October 15 and 17. We encourage you to join us at bargaining. You may sign up here.
Reminder: Town Hall this Sunday
Keep your calendar free from ten to noon this Sunday for a very important town hall meeting, with the latest updates on bargaining, strike preparation and member resources, and to answer any questions you may have. More information will be included in the update for tomorrow’s bargaining.
