KP-CNA Bargaining Update #7

Today, Kaiser Permanente and the California Nurses Association (CNA) met for the seventh day of contract negotiations.

What happened

• Kaiser Permanente let the union know that, after consideration, we cannot accept its proposal to roll back active medical benefits to their pre-2014 status.
• We presented one proposal, to move Appendix P, which addresses the order of priority for awarding extra shifts, into the body of the collective bargaining agreement with no changes, to make this information easier to find.
• We agreed with the concept in the union’s proposal to eliminate an expired side letter from the CBA. In addition, we counter-proposed to eliminate three expired appendices and another expired side letter.
• The union presented a proposal focusing on KP’s current hospital patient acuity system.
• The union gave one other proposal, regarding pension benefits.

For the record

In 2014, both KP and CNA worked hard to reach an agreement on medical benefits for active employees. The agreement, which the CNA bargaining team endorsed and nurses voted for, preserved excellent medical benefits for nurses that KP could financially sustain over time. To support our commitment to affordability for our members and patients, and continue to offer competitive overall benefits going forward, we need to maintain what KP and CNA agreed to in 2014 for active medical benefits.

We understand how critically important it is to have a reliable, accurate hospital patient acuity system. On Thursday, we will give a presentation about a new system that addresses many of the concerns our nurses have expressed.

What comes next

Bargaining is scheduled to continue Thursday, Aug. 10. We will continue to keep you informed.