OFNHP, as part of the 60,000-strong Alliance of Healthcare Unions (AHCU), wrapped up our national bargaining kickoff with Kaiser yesterday — and we’re more energized than ever. With four additional rounds of bargaining scheduled through August, including one week on our home turf in Portland, we’re on track to secure the strongest contract in our history.
This week, our primary objective was to clearly communicate our most important interests to the employer — a foundational step in interest-based bargaining. Doing so is essential to building a shared understanding of the many complex areas within the National Agreement that we’ll be negotiating. It also establishes the process and expectations needed to deliver the contract our members deserve when we ratify our next Collective Bargaining Agreement (CBA) later this year.
National bargaining includes four common issues tied to the National Agreement that are bargained in four subgroups:
- Economics
- Partnership Effectiveness
- Staffing and Patient Care
- AI/Technology
We kicked off the week with an overview of our national bargaining structure and process, followed by presentations on key topics, including unit-based teams, the Affordability Task Force, and workforce development and education. Just like with the launch of local bargaining, we participated in interest-based negotiations training before breaking into subgroups to begin bargaining on our priority topics.
Here are the updates from each of our subgroups, all of which had a productive week laying the groundwork for dynamic agreements that uphold the interests of both labor and Kaiser.
Economics
The Alliance economic subgroup has met several times to begin crafting an economic package. This week, the subgroup met with management for the first time to provide a high-level overview of our economic interests.
The Alliance made it clear to management that this next contract must address inequities caused by inflation, labor shortages, wage increases at competitors, and other agreements already settled at Kaiser. The only interest Kaiser communicated was renewing the partnership, and we are in agreement.
We focused on the following improvements:
- Significant, historically large wage increases.
- No reductions in health and retirement benefits.
- Improved education benefits, including tuition reimbursement, student loan assistance, and increased funding for the Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust.
- Implementation of a process to in-source work to grow our union and improve patient services.
- Parity across the Kaiser system for retiree medical benefits and pensions.
- A fair PSP.
- A commitment that Kaiser’s growth into new markets and facilities ensures new employees are unionized and covered under the National Agreement.
- Local contract expiration dates aligned with the expiration of the National Agreement.
We intend to submit a complete economic package to Kaiser soon.
Partnership Effectiveness
The objective of this subgroup is to develop consensus recommendations to optimize the effectiveness of the Labor-Management Partnership (LMP).
We focused on LMP training, Unit Based Teams (UBTs), just culture, and developing a process where the parties will develop and implement the measurement of Partnership above the UBT level (as called for in Article 1, Section B. d).
What became clear early in the subgroup’s work is that the National Agreement is rich with language requiring specific joint structure, process, and action to realize the full potential of the LMP — and that there are still significant gaps in its implementation across the entire Kaiser health system.
The time we spent level-setting on the Partnership language already in the National Agreement created mutual understanding that there is a massive amount of work ahead to fulfill our shared obligations under the agreement. And, without commitment, especially at the UBT level, we would never realize the kind of labor-management relationship, or health system, we want. Although we have a long way to go, we are clear that the Labor-Management Partnership is at the core of our work every day – and that it is not working everywhere it must.
Staffing and Patient Care
The National Bargaining Coordinating Committee tasked this subgroup with a charter that demands the subgroup to identify gaps in and make recommendations for full implementation of the National Agreement’s existing language on “Staffing, Backfill (Planned Replacement), and Budgeting; and Flexibility.”
Three working groups were formed to address these issues:
- Joint Staffing and Backfill
- Staffing Committees
- Flexibility
The groups took on a comprehensive line-by-line review of the existing language in sections such as 1.F. and 1.C.1.b. and began identifying issues with full implementation and execution and possible opportunities for improvement. Negotiations are still early, but there has already been an overwhelming sense of collaboration and mutual agreement. At least right now, we are heading into a good joint-Partnership space in this group for the coming months.
AI/Technology
The AI and Technology subgroup got off to an exciting start this week. After getting to know one another, labor and management had an in-depth discussion about the charter of our subgroup and the goals and expectations we have for our work together. We heard presentations from professors at MIT and Loughborough universities, as well as from Kaiser’s own head of AI and Emerging Technology, about the risks and opportunities for our future. Labor will meet again in the next couple of weeks to prepare for our next bargaining session that will take place from June 3 – 5. Stay tuned!
Remember to keep posting photos of yourself with your Alliance posters, using the hashtag #onevoiceonefuture, and sharing a message of what you're fighting for in this contract. Click here to view sample posts and feel free to send photos to SBurley@ofnhp.org so that we can share them on OFNHP social media. Our public posts show Kaiser just how united we are, and what we are willing to do to win a great union contract!