A message to SEIU-UHW, Local 20, and Local 29 union members
Meet Your Calling – come in for your patients
Dear Kaiser Permanente Care Teams,
We are all grateful that Kaiser Permanente and the Pharmacy Guild reached a tentative agreement for a new contract, averting a 7-day strike that would have impacted our members and each of us who are devoted to the health of our patients. This welcome development occurred after a tentative agreement with the Alliance, demonstrating that the bargaining table is the best venue for reaching agreement.
We deeply appreciate and value your tireless work during the pandemic to provide exceptional care and care experiences to our patients and members.
We want you to have the facts so you can make an informed decision.
There is still a lot of confusion and misinformation about the different contracts being bargained right now.
SEIU-UHW, Local 29, and Local 20 are asking their union members to walk out on our patients on Thursday, Nov. 18, in support of the current Local 39 engineers’ strike. We respect that you have a choice but given where we are in bargaining with Local 39, we hope you will choose not to walk away from your patients.
Sympathy strikes from Coalition unions make no sense
Your patients need you in the clinic and at the bedside. We’ve shown this week that we can reach tentative agreements with the unions that represent our employees. There is every reason to believe we also can resolve our remaining differences with Local 39 at the bargaining table and we are pleased that they returned to the table again today. Kaiser Permanente is committed to staying at the table until we reach a mutually beneficial agreement.
We understand your heartfelt concern for our valued Local 39 employees and we share that concern. The wages that we don’t pay them, or pay you in the case of a sympathy strike, are used to pay qualified replacement workers. We would rather be paying you, our employees, to be here doing what you do so well, with compassion and expertise.
We encourage you to ask your union leadership why they are asking you to walk away from members, patients, and co-workers, and lose pay for a union that is not even a partner union, when we are actively bargaining in good faith.
We also want you to know that we have communicated to your union leadership that we do not believe that the sympathy strikes noticed by SEIU-UHW, Local 29, and Local 20 are legally protected and we have filed grievances.
We respect your right to make an informed decision
As you consider the difficult decision whether to participate in a sympathy strike with Local 39, we hope you will consider the inherent dependence and trust that our members and patients put in us to be there for them.
Please be informed as you decide whether to come to work on Thursday — see below. In the end, I hope you will choose to be there for your patients and co-workers. We appreciate all you do and your careful consideration.
Debora Catsavas
Senior Vice President, Human Resources
Kaiser Foundation Health Plan and Hospitals
Get the facts and make an informed decision
Our proposals to Local 39 will keep our engineers among the best compensated in their profession.
√ We are not proposing any take aways.
√ We are offering across-the-board pay increases and bonuses.
√ We are offering generous medical and retirement benefits.
√ Local 39’s retirement benefits are the best among Kaiser Permanente’s union-represented employees.
√ Our proposals do not differentiate between current and future employees.
√ Local 39 wants increases that would exceed what we agreed on together with your union in 2019 and now with the Alliance and the Pharmacists Guild.
√ Local 39 has declined to provide bargaining dates previously, but we are pleased to say they returned to the bargaining table yesterday and we have another session today.
We hope you will encourage your union leadership to get the facts and to urge Local 39 to continue bargaining in good faith so we can reach a mutually beneficial agreement with them as well.