Our National Agreement expires on September 30 of this year. To this date, Kaiser has refused to come to the table to negotiate it. This failure to bargain is putting our historic partnership with Kaiser in limbo. However, our local SEIU Local 49 contract protects all of our wages and benefits for another year and ensures that we will get 3% in raises between September 1, 2018 and October 1, 2018.
Kaiser management has been fostering division among the unions at Kaiser in the hopes that they can get some unions to take major benefit cuts and then try to force them on everyone. We are concerned that might come to a head over the next few weeks when Kaiser continues to negotiate with the group of unions that left the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.
At rallies last week we heard those unions are pushing back against Kaiser management’s’ demands to:
- Quadruple what union members for pay for healthcare benefits
- Do major damage to the security of our pensions by taking it away from new hires
- Erode job security by outsourcing union jobs
- Diminish our rights as union members by pressuring our Union Coalition to agree to a weak new “partnership”
We hope all Kaiser Unions keep holding the line and pushing back against any take-aways!
There is NO reason Kaiser should be ripping away our benefits and lowering standards. The fact is, Kaiser is thriving financially. The health system has over $29 billion in reservesand pays the CEO, Bernard Tyson, over $13 million a year.
Outsourcing jobs, slashing benefits and dividing workers is Kaiser’s current mode of operation. But we’re not taking it; we’re standing strong together:
- We are pursuing a case against Kaiser’s illegal refusal to bargain with the National Labor Relations Board.
- We have met with state and national elected officials and they are calling on Kaiser to bargain.
- Kaiser’s conduct will be called out by the entire labor movement on Labor Day when we rally here in Portland, Oregon & our Coalition sisters and brothers rally across California to demand Kaiser return to being a labor-friendly employer. We hope to see you and your family out there taking a stand for our future.
- Join us on Labor Day, Monday September 3, at Overlook Park across from Kaiser Interstate Medical Center in Portland. RSVP here.
Keep watching our bargaining website for updates and action alerts.