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.

This is why we are fighting so hard on this issue, and we have secured a massive victory for our Kaiser members to make student debt relief even more accessible to Kaiser staff! Leaders across our bargaining units, with the help of AFT and support of AFT president Randi

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. All workers deserve to build power in their workplaces and have a voice on the job, no matter the size of their unit.

That is why we were proud to invite a group of three new technical employees from PeaceHealth Southwest to join our Tech bargaining unit! The

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.

What you need to know:

1. If you are represented by a union, you have these rights!
2. You must to invoke them, which

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!

Labor Partners are elected members

On Wednesday, May 18th, OFNHP’s  Kaiser Permanente RN Bargaining Unit Chair Joshua Holt, representing both OFNHP and the Nurses and Health Professionals division of the American Federation of Teachers, joined a nursing delegation at the White House to address the crisis that healthcare workers are facing across the country. Meeting with senior policy advisors, Holt was joined by other healthcare leaders, such as the Vice President of National Nurses United (NNU), a U.S. Army Colonel RN who ran the European COVID response for the U.S. military, the Chief of Nursing Services for Veteran Affairs

On Wednesday, April 20^th, a group of OFNHP members delivered a petition with over 800 caregiver signatures to PeaceHealth Columbia Network CEO Sean Gregory to propose a $5,000 retention bonus for all OFNHP PeaceHealth Southwest and St. John members. It was through our members’ organizing and action that we brought forward the signatures of 85% of our membership to demand a solution to the staffing crisis. Your coworkers spoke courageously about the conditions caregivers and patients face due to short staffing.

On Wednesday of this week, Sean Gregory rejected OFNHP’s call for a retention bonus

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. That contract is, however, only useful in as much as it is followed, and employers are regularly looking for ways around the contract so they can do what they want. Our power is rooted in our ability to enforce the contract, and that’s where stewards come in. A union steward is the

The steward delegates is the legislative power of our union. The assembly is made up of steward representatives from each worksite, and for every fifty union employees there is one steward representative in this decision making body. According to our bylaws, for every additional fifty union employees there shall be an additional steward representative allowed on the assembly. For example, if there are forty-five members you have one representative, but if you have fifty-one members you have two representatives, and so on. The goal is to make sure that just like our congresspeople, we have

Nearly 50,000 health care workers have overwhelmingly voted to ratify a 4-year contract with Kaiser Permanente that will help to ensure it remains a great place to work and receive care. The employees are represented by 22 local unions that are part of the Alliance of Health Care Unions and work across hundreds of job classifications in every geographic area where Kaiser Permanente has a presence.

The agreement includes annual wage increases and new staffing language for patient and worker safety, and maintains excellent benefits and innovative programs providing career development and

Nearly 3,400 workers from Kaiser Permanente in Oregon have voted to authorize a strike. With a staggering 90% participation rate, the vote count was to strike by 96%, meaning of those who voted, 96% voted Yes. This is an unprecedented strike authorization vote, showing total unity amongst Kaiser workers to stage a strike over issues like safe staffing, patient care, and a fair contract.

“Our members turned out in record numbers to say that they are willing to do what it takes to save patient care in Oregon,” says Jodi Barschow, a Kaiser Sunnyside RN and President of the Oregon Federation of