AFL-CIO convention delegates show solidarity with striking Kaiser workers

SEASIDE, OR -- Striking workers at the Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization in Oregon and southwest Washington received a big boost from delegates attending the 1997 Oregon AFL-CIO convention. Delegates unanimously endorsed a resolution calling on labor to "strongly reconsider its commitment to Kaiser Permanente during the next open enrollment period unless Kaiser brings the contract dispute to a quick and favorable resolution."

Affiliates at the convention represent thousands of union members who are enrolled at Kaiser Permanente.

Mark Splain, Seattle-based regional director of the national AFL-CIO, warned Kaiser "not to misunderstand labor's intent" in the dispute.

Convention delegates and the state labor federation donated more than $2,600 to the strikers after passing the hat on the floor.

Members of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees Local 328 at Oregon Health Sciences University in Portland donated $1,000 and challenged all other locals to meet or beat it.

The convention's Union Label Show donated 31 boxes of union-made paper products to striking union members and the Carpenters Food Bank said it was receiving donations for its weekly food box giveaway.

All eyes -- from Washington, D.C., to Portland -- are focused on the outcome of the strike by 2,000 members of Service Employees Local 49. They walked off the job at the health maintenance organization's facilities in Oregon and southwest Washington on Sept. 2 after refusing to accept Kaiser's demand that they contribute 10 percent of the cost of their health care premiums. The employees are some of the lowest paid at Kaiser.

Striking workers rejected a proposed three-week cooling-off that would have let them return to work while contract negotiations continued with key officials from the AFL-CIO and Kaiser. It was rejected by a more than three-to-one margin.

A busload of strikers came to the convention to join delegates on an informational picket line in front of the Shilo Inn, which is on the AFL-CIO's Do Not Patronize List.

Local 49's negotiating team met with Peter diCicco, president of the AFL-CIO's Industrial Union Department, and Service Employees International Secretary-Treasurer Betty Bednarczyk. They, in turn, met with a top Kaiser official in California Thursday and Friday following the convention.

Meantime, some 250 Kaiser technicians represented by the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, will see their contract expire Oct. 15. At press time, Kaiser had yet to present the union with a financial proposal, said Kathy Schmidt, a nurse at Sunnyside Medical Center and president of Local 5017.

The earliest the technicians can strike is the morning of Oct. 16. They work at all Kaiser facilities from southwest Washington to Salem.

Local 49 Financial Secretary Rick Henson said that diCicco, Bednarczyk and the union's negotiating team were scheduled to meet with Kaiser's top brass this week. The outcome of that meeting was not known as this issue went to press.

Despite the donations from the convention, Local 49 and Labor's Community Service Agency is appealing to local unions and union members to donate to the strike fund. Glenn Shuck of LCSA said he is receiving more than 100 calls a day from striking Kaiser employees and that funds are depleted.

Donations can be sent to: 1125 SE Madison, Suite 103-B, Portland, OR 97214.