Voices from the front lines, reflecting on LMP's 20th anniversary—looking back on the past and on to the future.
Meet Kate Pingo, one of the Humans of Partnership.
I was on the picket line in 1997. I was a picket captain and not one SEIU member crossed the line at Portland’s Division Medical Clinic. I coordinated food bank runs, schedules for pick up and schedules for picketers. I remember speaking at a rally with around 150 people outside the KP building, and I was wearing my picket captain shirt—I wore this with pride. There was union solidarity—the Longshoremen helped us out in a number of ways, including giving about 10 of our folks jobs on the waterfront as on-calls. They made good money—it was hard work. Thirty-three days on strike was a long time but worth it. I retired in 2016 after working 26 years at Kaiser Permanente and then seven years for the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. I worked long days the last few years—but it was so different from 20 years ago. I believe in the partnership and what it does for workers. I loved working for the front line.
Meet Nadean Cacho, one of the Humans of Partnership.
I had been at Kaiser Permanente two years when the partnership kicked off in 1997. I was one of 16 people hired to work for this new partnership as an LMP consultant. We visited and studied eight organizations around the country with partnerships. The level of instruction we got was priceless. At the time, I didn’t understand the magnitude and how groundbreaking this agreement really was. Our first project was opening the hospital in Baldwin Park, in Southern California, in partnership. We also went into the regions to talk about partnership and do trainings. There was lots of knocking on doors, since the regions didn’t know what we were doing. I was in that role until 2009, when I took my current job. The way I see my role now is, I can’t make things happen independent of other people. My role is to make sure I’m being a good example of a good partner. My joy comes in influencing how our managers communicate with labor partners. How do we continue to genuinely try to partner when things get tough?
Meet Lilian (Lily) Cates, one of the Humans of Partnership.
In 1997, I was starting to develop the confidence to ask important questions about life, like, “Do my glasses really need to be this huge?” Seventeen years later, in 2014, I started at Kaiser Permanente as a customer service representative in the Denver Member Service Contact Center. As an SEIU Local 105 labor leader, I found my passion for innovation through partnership, and I am honored to continue that work today as a consultant with KP Colorado’s Patient Experience team.
Meet Denice Washington, one of the Humans of Partnership.
At the beginning, some people laughed at this partnership. It was a wild idea—the concept of having a venue where the workers would have a voice was unique. How are we going to make that happen? I look at it as a marriage. We liked each other. We started dating. We courted a bit. Then we got engaged, and now we’re married. We went through some not-easy times. Labor had to look at our relationship with management. Management had to look at its relationship with labor. You have to work at a marriage every day. A lot of the success of a marriage has to do with communication and how you engage with your partner. There are hard conversations that have to happen, and you’ve got to have the ability to trust your partner and be open and receptive to ideas. I have non-Kaiser Permanente clients in the adversarial world, so I juggle. But when I go from adversarial to partnership, it’s great. I’m high on communication and engagement—and working together, in partnership.
Key accomplishments in workforce planning and development, workplace safety, total health, joint marketing and growth and attendance (and a peek into the future).
The Labor Management Partnership often is described as a journey. You never know where it’s going to take you next. But it also has a few rules of the road that help us find our way.
Inspired by the United States Constitution, we take a comic look at the founding of the Labor Management Partnership.
What can your team do to improve its own business literacy? And help patients make better decisions about their care?
Jazz up your next meeting with an LMP video! Use these ideas to get the ball rolling.