Student loan debt is one of the primary issues affecting our members, who disproportionately hold tens of thousands in student debt that they accrued while receiving the education that healthcare professions require. Our average member holds close to $30,000 in debt, and many of our members owe into the hundreds of thousands.
Our union’s strength has been most visible the past few years by the rapid rate of growth we have seen. We’ve added tech units at both St. Charles and Mid-Columbia Medical Center. As such, and as healthcare professionals, we continue to organize and invite new members to become a part of one of the strongest union locals in the country.
Weingarten Rights guarantee employees the right to union representation during an investigatory interview or at any time they suspect questioning might be related to disciplinary action. All union represented employees have the right to union representation whenever they believe a line of questioning could result in discipline, not just when the employer says that it could. This is often invoked on normal meetings with management or when answering questions regarding work performance.
Stewards are the absolute foundation of our union. As a union, we negotiate a union contract (a Collective Bargaining Agreement, or CBA) that affects everything from our wages and benefits to the details of our working conditions all the way to “just cause,” which prevents us from unjust discipline and termination.
For our Kaiser members, our union has a number of specialized committees, roles, and leadership positions that are meant to maintain what is broadly called the “partnership.” In an effort to work collaboratively through interest-based problem solving, our leadership roles are often specific to this unique Alliance-bargained position. This means that those with outside union experience may not know how this system works, so we have created a basic rundown of the different “partnership leadership roles that you might encounter or could seek to inhabit yourself!
