Nearly three weeks after they held a five-day strike, unions in the Alliance of Healthcare Unions still don’t have agreement on a new contract with Kaiser Permanente.
Roughly 45,000 Kaiser workers in Oregon, Washington, California and Hawaii struck Oct. 14-19, including 4,000 nurses and other health care providers represented by the Oregon Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals (OFNHP). They’re part of a 23-union national alliance that bargains on behalf of 62,000 Kaiser workers.
Kaiser brought in up to 7,600 replacement workers during the strike, a Kaiser spokesperson told the Labor Press by email.
Kristen Rohde, a Kaiser physical therapist and vice chair of the OFNHP professionals bargaining unit, said local bargaining hasn’t changed much compared to before the strike.
“We have some TAs (tentative agreements), but really, we’re not much closer than we were a month ago or two months ago with the big ticket items,” Rohde told the Labor Press. Top priorities for her unit include raises to match market standards, pay for all hours worked, and more worker input on how patients are scheduled. Rohde’s unit met with management once since the strike ended and had another session scheduled as of press time.
The Alliance bargains a national contract and member unions also negotiate local agreements for individual units.
The Alliance is seeking across-the-board 25% raises over four years. Kaiser’s latest offer, which it proposed before the strike, is 21.5% raises over four years.
National bargaining resumed Oct. 22 and continued the following week.
Though the strike doesn’t seem to have made an impact on bargaining yet, Rohde said it did strengthen worker solidarity.
“We’re a lot more unified. People took the time on the strike lines to get to know other workers that they wouldn’t normally have conversations with,” Rohde said. “Now a lot more people are vocal and asking, what’s our next step? What do we need to do next to win a fair agreement?”
