KP-NUHW Bargaining: Your upcoming vote – a message from the KP bargaining team

To our therapists,

We have been informed that NUHW intends to initiate a vote on our latest proposal in bargaining.

We are encouraged that this labor strike that has impacted your lives and those of our patients and damaged the reputation of the care our mental health teams provide, can potentially end.

The current offer is a good offer. And while NUHW has framed this as a time for Kaiser Permanente to compromise, the union is completely ignoring the fact that the offer reflects numerous compromises and enhancements that Kaiser Permanente has made in our efforts to avoid this labor strike.

Our compromise in our offer of 18% IPC time is a 20% increase over what you have currently. We have agreed to redefine a new patient as one who has not been seen in 12 months, rather than 24 months — to help balance workload for therapists. With our redesigned practice support framework, and our continued efforts to hire more therapists, you will have relief and we will not endanger our ability to meet our patients’ needs and regulatory requirements.

As we have informed the bargaining team, agreeing to additional proposals that result in more time away from patients, is not in the best interests of our patients and their ability to access mental health services and therefore something we are unable to do.

We truly hope every therapist will vote to ensure that every voice is heard, not just those that are most vocal or most visible and may be attempting to prolong this strike. Please also understand that a no vote will not automatically change either party’s bargaining position and only prolong a strike that has already harmed all parties.

Please vote to accept our offer. It is time to end the strike and most important, we can’t wait to have everyone back to work and back to your patients.

Thank you.