News

On April 27th, over a hundred union members and supporters walked the picket line at Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center over the problems facing the Emergency Department over the proceeding several months. Workers yelled chants, held signs, and helped to raise the voice of the Emergency Department staff, who have put up with dismal working conditions as they fight to give their patients the best care possible.

“What we are trying to do here is draw attention to issues of supply, cleanliness, staffing and staff retention that have been plaguing our department for years.  With a 57%

On April 27^th the nurses and healthcare professionals at the Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center’s Emergency Department will be joining an informational picket to raise the issues of staffing ratios, departmental changes, and patient care. These workers are members of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP), and are asking that management address many of the concerns that they fear could interfere with their ability to provide patient care.

“We know that when nurses and healthcare professionals have a say in how care is provided, and when we maintain safe staffing levels

PeaceHealth terminated a Pharmarchy Tech, claiming she violated HIPPA. As a Pharmacy Tech that was working in the Emergency Department doing Med Recs, part of her duties is to review the patients file for details needed to completer the work. The Employer claimed she took a deep dive into the patients record and after going through the grievance process we advanced it to Arbitration.

OFNHP provided witness testimony and documents to support that this employee was doing her job. One interesting fact was the Arbitrator ruled that her Weingarten rights were violated when the Pharmacy Manager told

An Unfair Labor Practice charge was filed last summer on behalf of Laurie Heppel, a strong union leader and bargaining chair at PeaceHealth. Laurie was pulled into a meeting with Management and Human Resources because they said they wanted to talk with her about an investigation. Management would not allow her to bring a Steward because they said there was not going to be discipline, just some coaching. At the end of this meeting the Human Resources representative declared the investigation closed and gave Laurie some materials to read. Then Human Resources told Heppel not to speak to anyone

Aric Wardian worked on call at PeaceHealth and punched out at 11:37 PM. He punched into his scheduled shift at 9:30 AM the following morning. PeaceHealth did not pay him his overtime when he punched in at 9:30 AM the next day for that shift, which is what he would have been owed given the way the work hours were experienced. 

When someone has less than ten hours of rest time between shifts, that employee is contractually guaranteed overtime as per our contract (Article 10, Section 10.8 Rest Between Shifts). The Employer claimed the Kronos timekeeping system rounded down to 11:30, so there was

After almost seven years of fighting to address the way that "traveler" nurses are used to fill gaps in RN coverage, we have won a major victory limiting the way that Kaiser Permanente can use these non-union workers. 

The issue was first resolved in 2013 when negotiations with a then executive at KP resulted in an agreement to limit the uses of travelers, leading to a formal agreement in 2014. This agreement was made as an "Issue Resolution" process as a part of the Labor-Management Process (LMP), which could have served as a great example of the partnership in action. Yet after that executive

After three years of fighting over unequal wage problems in Kaiser Permanente’s Vision Essential department, the workers have finally reached an amazing victory that will change the lives of the employees inside.

On Tuesday, March 2nd, the employees in Vision Essentials won an agreement from management to eliminate the “Optician 1” job description and map ten employees over to the higher wage scales starting April 1. The Optician 1 position was created to give riffed ESS a pathway into skilled tech jobs, but getting paid on average $6/hr less than other opticians doing the same work. It was