Kaiser Execs Predict Financial Doom & Gloom

We all know that Kaiser has been making record profits — but they opened this bargaining session complaining “hard times” are ahead for the company.

They then presented their economic proposal that demands major cuts from us, including:

• Copay increases to $20;
• More outsourcing and automation of our jobs;
• Lower pay, elimination of pensions, less time off — starting with new hires, then we’d be next.

WE HIT THE BARGAINING TABLE WITH MOMENTUM

We entered bargaining this week with major momentum with members from every local of the coalition rallying to protect our patients and our families in our next contract.

WHAT KAISER WANTS:

Cuts to Our Jobs, Wages and Benefits. Kaiser wants us to agree to a contract with:

• The lowest raises in decades.
• Cuts to our benefits, including doubling our healthcare copays and coming after our retirement benefits.
• Continued outsourcing and automation of our jobs.

Dear KP and CSC members,

I am happy to report that Labor and Management have now agreed to sets of dates through May and June for National Bargaining.  We have agreed to follow the normal format of bargaining in two to three day sets, every two to three weeks.  We will also use sub-groups as in the past to take on issues and make recommendations to the Common Issues Committee (CIC) as we have done successfully in the past.

Dear Local 30 members,

The Coalition leaders are continuing their work to get our National Bargaining back on track. There are a number of things going on behind the scenes to bring the sides together and finalize the bargaining that was begun last year. As our leaders continue to make the case for protecting our benefits and rejecting outsourcing among other important things, the Unions of the Coalition remain united.

While there is little detail to report at the moment, I continue to believe that these messages are important to send to simply confirm for you that we are working on this every day and will continue to do so until we have an agreement to bring back to our members that they can be proud of. It will be worth the wait.

All Local 30 stewards and members, As you all know the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions (CKPU) on behalf of all our unions including Local 30, filed charges against Kaiser back in April for failing to bargain and for setting preconditions on bargaining, both of which are illegal. Those charges were investigated by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and finally in December notice was sent to both the CKPU and to Kaiser that the charges would be upheld. Kaiser was given until early January to decide to either return to the bargaining table, and without preconditions, or go to trial over the NLRB decision. Those options are under consideration by Kaiser at this time. If Kaiser agrees to the settlement offered by the NLRB then bargaining can resume as early as later this month.