Kaiser Permanente and the Alliance of Health Care Unions have reached a tentative agreement on a national, three-year collective bargaining agreement.
The Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals ratified the national and local agreements Friday evening by a vote of 98 percent. Other chapters will be voting throughout October on the agreement, and local union representatives believe the agreement will be completely ratified this month.
That agreement covers health care workers at the five Kaiser clinics in Clark County. Once fully ratified, it will cover the 6,300 health care professionals in Washington and Oregon, and nearly 48,000 unionized Kaiser Permanente health care workers nationwide.
The Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals’ main focus was safe staffing, which means that Kaiser is allowing the proper amount of nurses to work, so that patients can get quality treatment.
“We call it (safe staffing) because we see that there needs to be a certain amount of staff there for the patients to get the care they deserve,” OFNHP President Adrienne Enghouse said.
The agreement also includes across-the-board wage increases, which vary by region and year, and safeguards for pensions that will ensure future employees can have pensions. It also means nurses won’t have their shift canceled.
“It gives the local health care workers a voice,” Enghouse said of the agreement.
The negotiations began in May and included informational pickets that were attended by hundreds. A tentative agreement was reached Sept. 23 and unanimously approved during an Alliance bargaining delegate conference Sept. 29, one day before the contract’s expiration. The contract has a retroactive effective date of Oct. 1.
“This agreement advances our ability to provide high-quality, affordable health care services and to improve the health of our members and the communities we serve,” Chuck Columbus, Kaiser Permanente senior vice president and chief Human Resources officer, said in a press release. “We’re proud of the skilled, dedicated and compassionate people of Kaiser Permanente who are devoted to our mission, our members and patients, communities and each other.”
Both parties will now collaborate under a new Labor Management Partnership Agreement. The previous agreement was made in 1997. Enghouse said this is the beginning of a process, and that the union intends to make sure Kaiser sticks to consistently meeting staffing needs.
“The fight is still on in some ways,” she said. “We’re going to have to make sure that they follow this process. We’re not going to quit. We’re not going to stop.”
