Join Hundreds of Union Members Sunday July 8
Minimal Progress Made in June 25-26 Bargaining
Join Hundreds of Union Members Sunday, July 8 in Orange County!
Orange County, June 26 – Union negotiators initially made some progress addressing labor and management interests. But by the second day, negotiators had to contend with:
- Management proposals that were made and then withdrawn
- Management proposal to eliminate 15-year old “provisions in the National or Local Agreements that prohibit the employer from cancelling or reassigning staff.”
- Kaiser proposed to be able to cancel shifts without pay up to two hours before shift start time, proposing to pay for half of the shift if the cancellation is less than two hours before start time.
The economic subgroup made limited progress:
- The union emphasized improvement of benefits, and significant wage increases for all Alliance union members.
- Management conversely proposed increased health care co-pays.
Based on this discouraging progress, union leaders are calling for union members to attend bargaining on Sunday, July 8. “This is the eleventh hour,” said Alliance Chair Kathleen Theobald. “This is when we need union members to show up and let Kaiser know we care.”
The Operational Effectiveness subgroup:
- Negotiators discussed forecasting the work of the future and staff.
- Management again called for flexibility, and the unions stressed that the key to flexibility is engaging labor early in the change process, before decisions are made.
“All the things that we’re trying to tackle really stem from the need to have meaningful participation from labor,” explained subgroup Union Co-Lead Lisa Loucks of UFCW Local 555.
The group stressed fully including labor in forecasting and planning for the work of the future, and addressing barriers to placing employees who have achieved higher qualifications within Kaiser.
It was in this subgroup that management called to end the no-cancellation policy.
The Partnership subgroup:
Focused on improving access to LMP training. “We need to ensure that from the first time they walk through the door, new frontline workers and managers are trained in how to work in partnership and what the expectations are,” said Valery Robinson, USW 7600 President. “We don’t want to go backwards.”
To speed the development of updated national curriculum, agreement was reached to empower a national LMP Learning Group that will report quarterly to the LMP Executive Committee.
The group discussed tightening up and improving training standards for new hires.
The union negotiating team also continued to advance proposals to require minimum hours of LMP training every year for every employee, and to expand the current 4-hour LMP Orientation to a full 8-hour LMP Orientation class.
Tell Kaiser you deserve respect!
Come to Bargaining
Sunday, July 8, 10:00 am at the Hilton Orange County/Costa Mesa
For more information, contact your local union
