More than 300 local union member leaders from across the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions met from April 17-18 to mark the start of national bargaining with Kaiser Permanente. After over a year of labor tension and coordinated member actions, to say there was excitement in the room would be an understatement. 

The first day of bargaining provided an opportunity for union leaders to come together and discuss overall bargaining strategy, review our goals and expected outcomes, and participate in work groups and bargaining training. 

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,

I am pleased to report to you that we will return to the bargaining table to resume negotiations for a new National Agreement.  Labor and management will begin meeting on April 18th in Oakland.

The sides reached agreement this week to restart the bargaining and work out the terms of the National Agreement together, and to rebuild our Partnership and continue the great work we have done together over the past 20 years. 

Local 30’s bargaining team members are:  CIC members Marianne Giordano, Annette Baxter and Roger Lester. And observers Jon Larson, Catherine Engler, Michael Ramey and Mark Englehart. Walter Allen continues to be involved as the Interim Executive Director for the Coalition.

There will be much more information coming about National as well as local bargaining.  As promised, we will continue to provide updates along the way. 

In unity,

Marianne Giordano
Executive Director/CFO

MG/mp

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.