Our Lab Pro Bargaining Team is excited to announce we have reached a tentative agreement with Kaiser Permanente for our local contract. This agreement is a direct result of your five-day strike, our vote of no confidence in Greg Adams, and the countless actions you and your coworkers took at your worksites. Through your action, we were able to move Kaiser to an agreement to strengthen and expand our access to severance in the event of a layoff, to add an additional wage step for our members with 7+ years of experience, and to expand use of bereavement for individuals we consider family but aren’t necessarily related by blood or marriage.
This agreement is tentative until ratified by OFNHP members of the Lab Pro unit. That means you will have the ability to vote on accepting this agreement. Our bargaining team endorses this agreement, and once we come to ratification, recommends you vote “yes”! Ratification will not take place until we have reached a tentative agreement at the national table. This does not mean we should wait to discuss the significant wins in our local contract and answer the questions you have.
Below is a summary of our key wins. Please take time over the holidays to review the summary and prepare your questions for discussion with our bargaining team. We will hold three Info Sessions on Zoom soon for you to ask questions, share opinions, and discuss what we believe is a major win for our unit. We will release those links shortly.
We are working hard to prepare the complete agreement for your review and will have that out to you before any ratification vote takes place.
Read Full TAs:
Article 1 – Recognition (Laboratory Professionals; Molecular Biology Classifications)
Article 4 – Definitions
Article 4(D) – External Temporary Employee
Article 5(D) – Regional Paid Travel Time
Article 7(A) – Flex Benefits
Article 7(F) – Paid Time Off (PTO)
Article 10 – Seniority, Layoff, Recall (Including MLT Grandfathering)
Kaiser Operations Package Proposal to Lab Pro
| Issue | Wins |
| Wages | Note: These adjustments are in addition to whatever will be secured for National Across the Board Wages: - New Experience Step. Employees with 14,000+ hours (7+ years) of experience will receive 2% increase in base pay
- New Longevity Step. Employees who have worked at KP for 240 months (20 years) will receive a 2.5% increase to base pay
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| Differentials | - New $1.50 weekend differential that will stack with all other differentials
- Evening shift differential increased from $2.20 to $2.45 (+ $0.25 increase)
- Night shift differential increased from $4.25 to $4.75 (+ $0.50 increase)
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| Benefits | - Secured the ability to use up to three Emergency Without Pay (eWOP) days per year. EWOP days will not count against employees for the purposes of attendance tracking
- Embedded our Holiday LOU in Article 7 and protected our ability to bank holiday time
- Embedded our PTO Accrual Table into Article 7.F so that everyone will have access to it outside of HR Connect
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| Staffing and Work/Life Balance | - Temporary Employees will no longer be able to apply for permanent positions until 30 days prior to the end of their current assignment. They will only be able to transfer early by mutual consent
- Secured agreement from KP to apply for a variance with the state of Washington to allow staff to once again combine breaks and lunches
- Moved Internal Transfer Restriction timeline from the two years originally proposed by management down to nine months with exceptions for transfers within departments or between Medical Centers
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| Education | - Secured an agreement to create a Molecular II Career Pathway to allow bargaining unit members the opportunity to obtain hands-on experience in Molecular Biology
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| Human Consideration | - Expanded Bereavement leave to four (4) days from three (3) and secured an additional instance of use for an individual who is not defined as family by our current CBA
- Revised Bereavement language to be gender neutral
- Added additional time off options for Jury Duty and Court Appearances for employees working off-hour shifts
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| Employment Protections | - Revised layoff language to include employees not in recall status (on EISE super-seniority) and secured minimum severance agreements for all employees regardless of the reason for layoff (RIF, local buy-out, etc.)
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| Language Cleanup and Expansion | - Embedded Seniority Tie-breaker language
- Defined Cytotechnologist Float home location and backfill expectations
- Removed old contract language that is no longer applicable to any members of our bargaining unit
- Added instructions for what to do if an employee believes their seniority calculation is inaccurate
- Added Molecular Biology (MB) certification to the classification of MLS as acceptable for employees with limited certifications to be classified as MLS
- Clarified that Article 5.D, Paid Travel Time, refers to travel within the NW Region
- Reworked Article 5.F to clarify shift trade language
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