Nurses conducted a two-day strike in November, citing a lack of adequate Ebola protections as a top complaint - a concern that was later resolved after the union convinced Gov. Jerry Brown to pass new regulations that required hospitals to provide the kind of training and protective gear the union demanded. The nurses had a list of more than 30 other demands that focused on workload and patient safety.
On the economic front, nurses made no additional requests beyond their last contract, which included annual raises for nurses, full health care coverage, and 100 percent employer-paid pensions and retiree health benefits.
It wasn't until after the November strike that Kaiser put any proposals on the table. As of earlier this week, the hospital system was requesting various new cost-sharing measures, according to nurses involved in the negotiations.
One would require nurses to pay higher co-pays when they sought medical services for themselves and their families at a Kaiser facility, a measure pursued by many employers nationwide as a way to reduce unnecessary use of the health care system. McClure says nurses agreed to a version of this request.
“But it’s extremely minimal cost sharing,” she said. “It’s extremely reasonable.”
Another proposal would have required retired nurses to contribute toward the costs of their health care, starting in ten years. And another would have tied future negotiations over pensions to agreements reached by other unions. McClure says the nurses rejected both of these proposals, and that nurses’ retirement benefits remained in tact, “for the most part.”
Kaiser awarded nurses several of their requests on working conditions.
The most important, McClure says, is that Kaiser will now advertise job listings for vacant nursing positions, a move she says is critical for easing the work load of current nurses.
Kaiser also agreed to provide supplemental insurance to nurses who are hurt on the job, or become ill at work.
And Kaiser will provide a 14 percent salary increase to all nurses.
“This agreement is a timely and clear reminder that differences are best resolved at the bargaining table, and not on the picket line,” said John Nelson, Kaiser’s vice president of government relations.
In addition to averting a second nurses’ strike, Kaiser is currently facing an ongoing strike by 2,500 of its psychologists and therapists. That week-long strike is scheduled to end Monday morning. The union for mental health professionals, the National Union of Healthcare Workers, has been bargaining with Kaiser for four years.
Nelson said the agreement with the nurses was the result of intensive, productive negotiations that became very serious in early December.
The hospital system is trying to control future costs and liabilities associated with its pension obligations and retiree health benefits, challenges that are shared by many other health care organizations and employers across the country, Nelson said.
“We try to work together with labor organizations that represent our employees to find solutions to those challenges,” Nelson said, though he declined to discuss details of the agreement that might address those challenges, because the union had not had a chance to ratify it yet.
“If you look at the comprehensive nature of all the pieces of the agreement, we are pleased that it helps us meet our objectives,” he said. “We wanted to offer benefits to our nurses that are consistent with making this a great place to work, while meeting affordability for our patients.”
