Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions

What if every organization and every union had a labor management partnership like ours?

It’s not as far-fetched as it sounds. On Aug. 16, more than 250 union, business and government leaders from all over the United States gathered in Chicago for Partnership Day, a meeting hosted by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service at its biennial conference—and offered a realistic look at the ups and downs that occur in partnerships and what it takes to launch and sustain them.

“We know partnership can make a difference,” Allison Beck, FMCS director, told the gathering. “This is not some fantasy that happens in a make-believe world.” She should know. As leader of the FMCS, the federal agency that mediates labor disputes across the United States, she’s seen firsthand how acrimonious relationships can ruin companies and unions—and how more open and respectful ones can help them both succeed.

The partnership between Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions is the longest-lasting and strongest one in the nation, so conference participants asked many questions about how it operates.

A race to the top

Dennis Dabney, KP's senior vice president of National Labor Relations and Office of Labor Management Partnership, told the packed room he spends a lot of time on the phone with leaders from other companies interested in starting and strengthening partnerships.

“I've seen so many companies engaged in a race to the bottom,” Dabney said. “I'd like to see more engaged in a race to the top.” If he has any regrets about Kaiser Permanente’s partnership, he said, it's that we didn’t create unit-based teams sooner.

When I think about the Labor Management Partnership and Kaiser Permanente’s history, I can’t help but believe the creation of the LMP was inevitable—and that it’s been the linchpin to KP’s success after the financial challenges of the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s.

From the very beginning, Kaiser Permanente’s management and its unions shared a philosophy of engagement. This culture never went away entirely, but when the competition from for-profit HMOs mounted in the 1980s, it got pushed to the background. Kaiser Permanente did what many businesses do—it reduced its workforce and made other cost-cutting changes. Union members became frustrated, believing the changes undermined KP’s mission and eroded working conditions.

The unions responded with traditional work actions and strikes.

But I’d say four milestones changed the landscape.

First, in the early 1990s, the Industrial Union Department of the AFL-CIO created the KP Coordinated Bargaining Committee to improve the unions’ bargaining position. That committee, which included most of the major unions at Kaiser Permanente, became the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. We were charged with coordinating a full-scale “corporate campaign” against KP.

But we realized we might do permanent damage to the company and to our 57,000 coalition union members. So we opted to pursue an alternative strategy. In the mid-’90s, we approached KP with a bold new idea—partnership. Unlike other union-employer “cooperation” arrangements, where management would come to labor for help after decisions had been made, the proposed partnership called for labor’s integration into KP’s management and operations structure.

After almost a year of discussions, Kaiser Permanente agreed, and in 1997, the Labor Management Partnership was formed. The decision demonstrated courage on both sides. It placed a value on the knowledge possessed at every level of the organization, from the boardroom to the front line. Building on that, we broke away from traditional, reactionary problem solving and turned to interest-based problem solving and consensus decision making.

This led to the fourth milestone—the decision to conduct national bargaining using those same problem-solving methods and to include operational leaders and rank-and-file union representatives at the bargaining table.

Other factors have contributed to KP’s financial turnaround, but there can be no denying the impact the partnership made—and continues to make—in ensuring that Kaiser Permanente is the national leader in health care, with a great place to work and industry-leading salaries, wages and benefits. Its position did not come about by accident, but by the courage of leadership and the power of partnership.

Visit Kaiser Permanente's 70th anniversary mini-site.

How we bargain our National Agreements is as important as what we bargain. We use an interest-based problem-solving approach. This is a collaborative approach to solving problems that strives to meet the most critical needs of all parties. It also aims to preserve — and improve — workplace relationships and partnership. It’s not about “giving in,” but rather is a process to negotiate differences amicably and reach results that will be lasting and durable.

Traditional, adversarial bargaining usually begins with each side staking out its position. In contrast, interest-based bargaining begins with all parties discussing what their needs are. Both parties work on an issue together, explore options and find a solution that meets the key interests. That sense of shared ownership smoothes the way for successfully implementing the agreement. This approach also opens the door to collaborative problem solving — as opposed to competition or compromise — and leads to creative, mutually beneficial solutions.

Interest-based bargaining works best when both sides share information, focus on key issues, listen actively, are open to different options and trust one another. We’ve found that this approach addresses the needs of union members and helps the organization improve performance — which ultimately benefits our health plan members and the communities we serve.

Learn more about the 2015 Coalition National Agreement and the 2018 Alliance National Agreement.