Kaiser Permanente averted an employee strike after reaching a tentative agreement that came after a months-long period of bargaining between Kaiser and the Alliance of Health Care Unions.
In the Valley region, Kaiser has care centers in Woodland Hills, Panorama City and Antelope Valley.
The agreement comes after some Kaiser employees were dissatisfied with changes in what they believed was an insufficient wage structure. One of the supposed issues at hand was Kaiser’s proposal to introduce a 1 percent wage increase with a 1 percent bonus each year. Union members wanted a 4 percent wage increase through the next three years.
Gerard Madrazo has worked for Kaiser for 16 years and is a pharmacy technician. Madrazo and his wife both work in technician positions. Both were prepared to put their incomes on the line for a potential strike.
“We’re still pushing to go for it because we realize that we had to make a stand. If we don’t do anything now, they’ll kind of continue this pattern of trying to take away,” Madrazo said before the agreement was reached. “We feel justified in saying we need to actually get more for what we we’re doing.”
The agreement, which still requires ratification by union members, guarantees across-the-board wage increases each year through 2025; provides bonus opportunities with yearly payouts for achieving new mutually agreed upon objectives to address affordability and new safe staffing and workload language on patient care.
Kaiser Permanente and the alliance also agreed to form a national Affordability and Competitiveness Task Force. The task force will work to maintain a balance between affordability and protecting quality patient care.
“These were challenging negotiations, but this tentative agreement demonstrates the strength of our Labor Management Partnership and the unique success it can achieve when we work together,” Christian Meisner, Kaiser’s chief human resources officer, said in a statement.
