Latest Kaiser Updates

Three years ago at our Founding Convention in San Francisco, we established NUHW to start a new movement of healthcare workers. We set out to build an organization that would stand up for workers instead of lying down for employers, that would put members in control of our own futures, and that would refuse to settle for less than what we and our patients deserve. We set out to transform the labor movement in the healthcare industry and beyond.

Today, three years into our mission, we are very proud to announce that we have reached a new milestone in fulfilling that vision.

NUHW has reached an agreement with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM) to pursue a formal relationship between our two unions and to work toward a potential future affiliation. The IAM is an affiliate of the 12 million member AFL-CIO.

This process began last November, when NUHW’s Executive Board authorized us to pursue a formal relationship with an AFL-CIO-affiliated union. We sought out an organization that placed a high value on member democracy, on fighting for and protecting workers’ contractual standards, on organizing the unorganized, and on committing the resources necessary to help NUHW unite healthcare workers in California and across the country.

In the IAM, we believe we have found the right partner to enable our members to achieve our dream of building a strong, democratic, and progressive healthcare workers union.

What does this mean for NUHW members?

In the short term, it means that we will be in an even stronger position to win at the bargaining table and to build industrial strength in the hospital and long term care industries. Immediately, the IAM will provide resources to help NUHW members settle fair contracts and to help 43,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente leave SEIU and join our union in a rerun election later this year.

The relationship will also allow NUHW to work more closely with other unions in the national AFL-CIO and on a state and local level.

In the long term, an affiliation would mean that IAM’s 700,000 aerospace and transportation workers would be united with us to help us achieve our goal of transforming the healthcare industry and the labor movement.

The leaders of the IAM are eager to support our work because they share our vision and have seen the great strides NUHW members have made in three short years.

“NUHW and its leadership have a strong, national reputation for honesty, competence, integrity, and militant, democratic, progressive trade unionism,” said Gary Allen, Vice President of the IAM. “Their record of success in winning industry standard contracts and organizing the unorganized speaks volumes. For 124 years the IAM has fought hard to raise standards of living and bring forward the issues of working families in North America. The IAM shares the NUHW’s commitment to free, fair and democratic membership control of the collective bargaining process. By standing together, all of us are stronger.”

The process of determining whether to affiliate with IAM will involve the active participation of NUHW and IAM members throughout the state over the coming months. Any final recommendation regarding affiliation will be put to a vote of all NUHW members.

Over the next several months, we encourage NUHW members to participate as we determine the shape and the future of our relationship with the IAM. Attached is a fact sheet about the IAM and our joint press release.

We are looking forward to working with the IAM to help us achieve our decades-long goal of building a truly national healthcare workers movement that values democracy and transparency and that is uncompromising in its commitment to the highest standards for healthcare workers and the highest quality care for our patients.

In Unity,

Last Friday, Kaiser reported 2011 profits of $2.1 billion. That makes $6.1 billion in the last three years.

$4.4 billion of those profits come directly from the day-to-day operations of the hospitals and clinics where we work.

Like most of you, I knew Kaiser was profitable. I just didn’t know how much!

So, when I heard the tape of Dave Regan, President of SEIU-UHW, speaking to the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions last month, I could not believe my ears.

Despite Kaiser’s profits, Regan predicted deep cuts for healthcare workers; Regan even called Kaiser’s cuts a massive “train bearing down on us.”

You can imagine my further shock when instead of pointing out Kaiser’s profits and discussing how workers can stand up to Kaiser’s takeaways, Regan indicated that in order to “get out in front” of Kaiser’s cuts, SEIU wants us to roll over and propose cuts of our own!

Regan’s whole speech was about how Kaiser workers should expect less. At one point he said, “Kaiser wants us to give back a lot of what we have because almost nobody outside of Kaiser in America has it.”

Regan even had the nerve to warn Kaiser workers that “we could turn Kaiser into General Motors if we’re not careful.”

Like all of you, I’m proud to be a healthcare worker at Kaiser; we work hard and expect more. That’s how we’ve helped make Kaiser a great place to work. We know better than to believe that Kaiser is financially troubled. Every day we help Kaiser make some of those billions of dollars in profits.

In 2005, we worked side-by-side with the leaders who are currently with NUHW to win the benefits that we enjoy to this day. Now SEIU wants us to roll over and give up those benefits and our share of Kaiser’s success… all because Dave Regan and SEIU don’t want to fight?

When it comes to changing the benefits we won in our 2005 Kaiser contract, I’ve got a message for Dave Regan and SEIU. It’s two simple words that Dave doesn’t seem to know how to say:

“No way!”

In unity and strength,

Angela Glasper, Optical Cashier, Kaiser Antioch
National Union of Healthcare Workers

Audio recording of SEIU-UHW President Dave Regan speaking at a delegate convention for the 90,000-member Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.

More audio here.

650 caregivers at Seton Medical Center in Daly City who petitioned for an election to leave SEIU and to join NUHW secured an election date for March 21 over SEIU’s objections.

“After SEIU’s failed representation and contract takeaways, we are ready to win with NUHW,” said Suad Husary, a Respiratory Therapist at the Medical Center. “We saw how NUHW workers at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital fought off layoffs and won a contract with raises and no concessions. We’re united to do the same at Seton.”

As the collective bargaining agent for Seton employees, SEIU has agreed to major contract concessions, including increases in the cost of workers’ health benefits and a weakening of job security provisions that has resulted in the layoffs of more than 100 Seton caregivers. In the Daughters of Charity Health System as a whole, SEIU’s giveaways have resulted in job losses for more than 300 employees.

SEIU’s concessions at Seton mirror its conciliatory bargaining approach to employers throughout the state.

NUHW members at The Sequoias Portola Valley rejected management’s contract proposals by a vote of 47 to 5, and demanded that their employer, Northern California Presbyterian Homes and Services (NCPHS), come back to the table and bargain a fair and equitable contract.

Workers rejected a “last, best and final” offer from NCPHS that included cuts to workers’ pension plan and substantial increases to workers’ health costs.

In December, at NCPHS’s Sequoias facility in San Francisco, SEIU accepted identical takeaways to those rejected by NUHW-represented workers in Portola Valley.

Weekly Workers’ Roundup: Bay Area Nurses Walk Out, Puget Sound Truck Drivers Protest

by: Patrick Glennon, Working In These Times

WorkWeekRadio editorial documents our Kaiser Strike.

CBS San Francisco

KCAL Los Angeles

ABC Sacramento

San Jose Mercury News (Photo Essay)

ABC Fresno

Washington Post, 89.3 KPCC (Audio), Marin Journal, the California Report (Audio) . KFOR (Video) FOX40 Sacramento (Video)




Kaiser Fontana: San Bernadino and Inland Empire Sun

Andy Stiny, Salinas Californian
Jan 31, 2012

The vice-president of the union representing about 750 Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital workers is blasting the hospital administration after the release of information showing two hospital executives received one-time supplemental pension payouts of over $1 million and three others received lesser amounts.

“It’s the same concerns we raised around Sam Downing’s (retired hospital CEO) pension,” said John Borsos, vice-president of the National Union of Healthcare Workers.

Downing retired from the hospital in April with almost $4 million in supplemental retirement benefits and a regular pension of $150,000 a year. That pension scheme was stopped by the hospital board in December.

Here are times and locations for our January 31 strike at Kaiser Permanente, as well as important information to share with your co-workers, including information about the right to sympathy strike.

• Sacramento-area Picket Line locations
• South Bay Area Picket Line locations
• North Bay Area Picket Line locations
• East Bay Area Picket Line locations
• San Francisco and Peninsula Picket Line locations
• Central Valley Picket Line locations
• Southern California Picket Line locations

Leaflets and Important Information:

Join us on the Picket Line! [English][Espanol]

Kaiser is having a Panic Attack! [Leaflet]

17,000 CNA Nurses will be united with us [Leaflet] 

Questions and Answers about our Statewide Strike [English] [Espanol] 

Legal memo on the right to sympathy strike [Legal Memo]

Photos from our September 22nd Strike:

We want to report to you that today 750 NUHW members at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital are celebrating winning a new contract with no concessions and wage increases of 3.25% to 18.25%.

Our struggle to win our contract at Salinas wasn’t easy. First we had to fight to leave SEIU and the layoffs that SEIU had agreed to. Then we fought a one-year battle to win a fair contract, including a one-day strike at our hospital (the first-ever strike at SVMH) and picketing the homes and businesses of the Hospital’s Board of Directors.

At the end of the day, we won the contract we deserve in Salinas because in NUHW workers control our union and are united to win the best contracts and secure the strongest union representation.

Important news from Seton Medical Center

Today, we are also proud to report important news from the Daughters of Charity Health System. 650 workers at our hospital, Seton Medical Center in Daly City, petitioned the labor board yesterday for an election to leave SEIU and to join NUHW.

When we see the powerful steward councils, the effective representation, the transparent bargaining and the contract victories won by workers in NUHW, the contrast with our current union, SEIU-UHW, is clear.

At Seton Medical Center, SEIU-UHW agreed to a contract with takeaways that weakened our health benefits and job security. As a result, more than 100 of our co-workers were laid off. Representation at our hospital has also suffered. Under SEIU-UHW, calls aren’t returned, grievances aren’t filed, and, time and again, when there are issues in our workplace, management has the upper hand.

We’re petitioning to leave SEIU and join NUHW at Seton Medical Center because after seeing all that workers have won at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital, we know there’s a better way.

As members of NUHW, we will win the contract and representation that we deserve.

Sincerely,  
Suad Husary, Respiratory Therapist, Seton Medical Center
Ernesto Gonzales, Food Service Department, Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital
National Union of Healthcare Workers

PS. Please follow this link for important information, including picket line times and locations, about our brothers and sisters in NUHW who will be on strike this Tuesday, Jan 31 at Kaiser Permanente.

Chanting “Kaiser profits THRIVING—Worker Benefits DIVING!” more than 50 workers picketed Kaiser President Bernard Tyson outside Embarcadaro Plaza in San Francisco last night.  Read more about the workers’ protest here!

Audio recording of January 25 Kaiser Town Hall featuring NUHW President Sal Rosselli, Kaiser Director Ralph Cornejo, Gloria Villasenor, Optician, Kaiser Union City, Mell Garcia, Medical Assistant, Kaiser Hayward and Latika Malkani, NUHW Attorney from the firm of Siegel, LeWitter and Malkani.

This Wednesday, January 25 at 7pm, NUHW will hold a state-wide phone call with thousands of Kaiser Service and Tech workers.

Topics covered on the call will be:  

• Sal Rosselli on the State of NUHW
• Progress report on the Kaiser professionals’ contract campaign
• Legal update on the scheduling of the S&T election
• News on the growing support for NUHW in our hospitals and clinics  

If you were called on previous calls and your number has not changed, you won’t need to do anything to join the call other than answer the phone at 7pm, Wednesday!  

To make sure you are included in the call, or if your phone number has changed, you can sign up at www.NUHW.org/kaisertownhall by 7:30am, Wednesday morning.

Sincerely,

Elizabeth Carter, LVN, Kaiser Richmond Pinole
National Union of Healthcare Workers

PS. For Bay Area healthcare workers, please JOIN US this Thursday for a rally in San Francisco from 5:30-8pm at 5 Embarcadaro Center (Embarcadaro BART) to tell Kaiser President Bernard Tyson that our hospitals are not Wall Street banks! Full info and sign up sheet here.

Workers at Salinas Valley Memorial Hospital (SVMH) approved a Tentative Agreement reached on Monday between management and the union in a vote of 388 in favor to 1 against, or 99% percent in favor of ratification, with a 54% turnout.

On January 26, the Salinas Valley Memorial Healthcare System Board of Directors will vote on the Tentative Agreement, which comes with a recommendation to approve from the hospital’s bargaining team.

Coverage: Monterey County Herald, the Californian

Tuesday, 4,000 NUHW members in all five NUHW bargaining units at Kaiser gave notice to Kaiser Permanente that NUHW will go on a one-day strike on January 31st if Kaiser continues to commit unfair labor practices and refuses to bargain in good faith with us.

Today, 17,000 RNs represented by the CNA gave notice to Kaiser Permanente that they will be striking in sympathy with us and joining NUHW on the picket line.

We are letting Kaiser management know that it’s time to take their greedy takeaways off the table and settle a contract that protects our patients and our benefits.

We’re serious about winning victories for ourselves and our patients. In the last months, we’ve filed a complaint with the Department of Managed Health Care blowing the whistle on Kaiser’s failure to deliver timely care to mental health patients. NUHW members have also led the way fighting unfair rate hikes at Kaiser, which has made $5.6 billion in profits since 2009.

We want all Kaiser workers to know their rights with regard to our strike. Here’s a web page with leaflets about our strike including important information for all Service and Tech workers and a page about workers’ right to join us on the picket line.

For workers in the San Francisco Bay Area we also are having a warm up for our strike protesting Kaiser President Bernard Tyson on January 26th at the San Francisco Hyatt (BART, Embarcadaro) 5:30-8:00pm. Here’s a leaflet you can share with your co-workers and an online sign up sheet where you can RSVP.

In the days to come you can expect more major announcements from NUHW regarding our strike. Please share this information with your co-workers. We’re showing Kaiser management that healthcare workers are more united than ever to fight back for our patients and win a fair contract.

Sincerely,

LaNeta Fitzhugh, RN, Kaiser LAMC
Gloria Villasenor, Optician, Kaiser Union City 
National Union of Healthcare Workers 

PS. NUHW members in Southern California have created this wall calender that you can hang in your workstation. Print it and share it with your co-workers today.

“At the turn of the century women earned approximately ten cents an hour, and men were fortunate to receive twenty cents an hour. The average work week was sixty to seventy hours. During the thirties, wages were a secondary issue; to have a job at all was the difference between the agony of starvation and a flicker of life. The nation, now so vigorous, reeled and tottered almost to total collapse. The labor movement was the principal force that transformed misery and despair into hope and progress. Out of its bold struggles, economic and social reform gave birth to unemployment insurance, old age pensions, government relief for the destitute, and above all new wage levels that meant not mere survival, but a tolerable life. The captains of industry did not lead this transformation; they resisted it until they were overcome. When in the thirties the wave of union organization crested over our nation, it carried to secure shores not only itself but the whole society.”

Illinois AFL-CIO Convention, October 1965