At yesterday’s bargaining, Kaiser management responded to several of our previous proposals.
While they made some movement on New Technology, they are still rejecting language that we agreed to in Southern California which would not allow management to use technology, including AI, to replace therapists. They say they have no immediate plans to do so, but want to retain the “flexibility” to replace us in the future.
Management also gave us a counter on Seniority, related to selection of office space, which essentially said nothing. Their proposal says they will “consider” seniority, based on “operational needs”, but that the Chief gets to ultimately decide and we cannot grieve any aspect of the selection process.
The employer also made a proposal to replace the ongoing Model of Care committee with ad hoc Best Practices Committees, which would each have a singular focus. The concept may have some merit, and we are considering a counterproposal.
The rest of their responses were rejecting our proposal or maintaining their previous position:
- Disputes – they still want to take away our ability to sympathy strike
- Union representation – maintained their proposal to put strict limits on the number of stewards who can attend steward meetings that occur six times per year
- Peer review – rejected our proposal to ensure the peer review process isn’t used inappropriately by management to bypass the corrective action process
Needless to say, Kaiser management also rejected our proposals for adding the Juneteenth Holiday and improving the Extended Sick Leave benefit.
On our part, we presented a revised proposal on Safety that would require the employer to inform all employees of the existing process to report and resolve issues with threatening, harassing or other inappropriate behaviors of patients.
We also reached tentative agreement on four minor items:
- Article XIV – to extend the time for Associates to obtain licensure from 2.5 to 3 years after obtaining required hours; and to change “Assistant” to “Associate”
- “Winesseth” and Article II – to change “Assistant” to “Associate” in both of these sections
- To add an Appendix to the contract detailing LPPC Guidelines
