Kaiser Permanente and labor finalize national contract

The Kaiser Permanente health maintenance organization and a coalition of 25 locals from eight international unions have agreed to an unprecedented five-year national contract that will raise pay, guarantee job security to 62,000 workers and strengthen their role in staffing decisions that affect patient care.

Ninety-two percent of all unionized employees working for Kaiser Permanente in the Portland metropolitan area are covered by the agreement, including 1,369 nurses, dental hygienists and technical employees who are members of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP) Local 5017; 2,286 housekeepers, cafeteria workers and service providers who are members of Service Employees International Union Local 49; and 634 pharmacy techs and radiology employees with United Food and Commercial Workers Local 555. [Several other local unions that represent small numbers of Kaiser employees were not part of the joint bargaining: The independent Oregon Nurses Association and Guild for Professional Pharmacists and Operating Engineers Local 701.]

The five-year agreement provides for across-the-board raises of 4 to 6 percent a year. In addition, union members will be eligible for bonuses if certain goals - including improved patient satisfaction and reduced medical errors - are met. The contract also guarantees no layoffs unless an entire Kaiser Permanente facility closes. The contract also creates committees with equal numbers of union members and managers that will determine staffing levels and other matters that affect patient care. And it formalizes training to help teams of health care providers, from phone screeners to doctors, work together more smoothly.

"Medical care today is so complex, it requires teams of people. If those people aren't able to work together in constructive, collaborative ways, the quality of care suffers," said David Lawrence, chairman of the Kaiser Foundation at a Sept. 26 press conference with national AFL-CIO President John Sweeney. "What makes this contract so exciting is that now we're all in the same boat rowing together."

By making these and other concessions, management spokespeople said they're buying a chance to improve patient care, plus an increased ability to attract and retain health care workers in a tight labor market.

"It gives us five years of labor peace, and helps us be the employer of choice for health care workers," said Ray Robertson, vice president of shared services at Kaiser. "Our plan is to be here for the next 50 years," he added. "It requires us to invest in the people who work here."

Kathy Schmidt, president of Local 5017 and a member of the national bargaining team, said it's the best contract her union has yet had with Kaiser. "Front-line employees will be involved in purchasing decisions, such as the kind of sharps to buy," she said. Schmidt said the contract also contains increased health care benefits and substantial pension benefit improvements, which are important to Kaiser's aging workforce. Health coverage was extended to employees' dependents up to 25 years old, and to domestic partners.

Historically, Kaiser Permanente - the largest unionized health care provider in the United States - negotiated separate contracts with each of its local unions. This time, Kaiser and the unions agreed to bargain as many issues as possible in a uniform way nationwide. The agreement on these national issues then became part of contracts that were being negotiated at the same time by local unions and management.

The process took seven months, and employed from the outset a method called "interest-based" bargaining. Traditionally, explained Kaiser primary care director Tom Syltebo, negotiations were oppositional and adversarial, with the two sides sitting on the opposite side of the table. This time, negotiations started with a process of identifying common goals. To do this, some 250 rank-and-file union members and managers took part in a series of discussions.

Three years ago, Kaiser Permanente entered a partnership with the AFL-CIO under which the labor federation agreed to help market the health plan and Kaiser ensured that new facilities would be unionized. This contract, which has been ratified by nearly all the unions involved, is an outgrowth of that partnership.

Kaiser Permanente is a not-for-profit health maintenance organization with eight million members - 445,000 in northwest Oregon and southwest Washington.

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