LMP Concepts

Ten weeks of national bargaining between Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions concluded Saturday, June 6, when 150 union and management representatives approved a tentative 2015 National Agreement. The agreement now goes to the 28 union locals that compose the coalition for ratification and to Kaiser Permanente senior leaders for approval.

The three-year tentative agreement is designed to help unionized workers and managers achieve quality, affordability and safety of care; prepare for jobs of the future; and develop innovative solutions to health care challenges. The agreement also will enable our 3,500 unit-based teams to better deliver award-winning care and service to Kaiser Permanente’s more than 10 million members and patients.

“This is an outstanding agreement that deepens our ability to provide affordable, high-quality care to our members and patients,” says Dennis Dabney, the senior vice president of National Labor Relations and Office of the Labor Management Partnership. “Kaiser Permanente leads the industry because it is a great place to work and a great place to receive care—and the two are inseparable.”

“We’re on year 18 of a remarkably successful strategy,” says Hal Ruddick, executive director of union coalition. “Our contract is better than ever, Kaiser Permanente’s quality and service scores are higher than ever, and the organization and unions are both healthy and growing. Partnership pays off for workers, consumers and mission-driven organizations like Kaiser Permanente.”

Agreement highlights

The agreement includes wage increases in each year of the agreement (see specifics below), provides operational flexibility and bolsters joint problem-solving capabilities. It builds on the successful 2012 National Agreement, strengthening provisions for workplace health and safety, providing additional funds for workforce training and development and ensuring the consistent application of partnership principles.

The new three-year tentative agreement includes:

• Across-the-board wage increases in each year of the agreement: All employees in Northern and Southern California represented by a coalition union receive 3 percent increases in the first two years and 4 percent in the third year. Employees in the regions outside of California represented by a coalition union will receive a 2 percent increase each year of the three-year agreement. In addition, they will receive a 1 percent increase at the end of the third year.
• Enhancements to benefits such as dental coverage, life insurance and tuition reimbursement. The tuition reimbursement was increased to $3,000 per employee per year. For the first time, tuition, dental coverage and life insurance are standardized for coalition union members across all regions.
• A long-term solution that protects retiree medical benefits for current and future retirees, with no net increase to retirees’ out-of-pocket expenses, while reducing liabilities associated with those benefits.
• Increased funding to the Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust and the SEIU UHW-West and Joint Employer Education Fund to ensure career development for Kaiser Permanente’s diverse workforce.
• Improved methods for assessing unit-based team performance and for spreading and adopting successful practices.
• Updates to our groundbreaking Kaiser Permanente Total Health Incentive Plan,  which rewards employees for healthy behavior and provides incentives for collective improvement.
• Joint participation on community health projects by the coalition unions in KP’s local and regional Community Benefit programs.

Next steps

Our agreement is the largest private-sector contract in the United States this year. Once it is approved by Kaiser Permanente senior leaders and ratified by union members this summer, it will take effect Oct. 1, 2015, and be in effect through Sept. 30, 2018.

The impact of the agreement “goes beyond the words on paper,” says Jerry Vincent, the Northern California region’s director of Labor Relations. “It lays the foundation for us to continue to provide quality, affordable care for many years.”

“There were some tough moments,” Denise Duncan, RN, the executive vice president of UNAC/UHCP, says of the negotiations. “But people came back together. It was a reminder that our national agreement—and our partnership—is very strong, and we keep making it better. There’s nothing like it anywhere else.”

For more information, see www.bargaining2015.org.

Improving performance and strengthening partnership is the work of the Operational and Service Excellence in Partnership subgroup—one of three subgroups in national bargaining.

At the third session of national bargaining, members of the subgroup made recommendations on topics including improving learning, accountability, problem solving, consistency, flexibility and support for unit-based teams.

The many perspectives represented at the table—with all regions and a wide range of job types in the mix—enriched the group’s discussions.

“We are really making progress. We’re having good discussions that can help people back at work overcome barriers in their day-to-day UBT work and make their lives easier and better,” says Holly Davenport, a union representative for UFCW Local 770 in Southern California. The group is investigating ways to improve the spread of practices from one team to another and to ensure that UBT assessments accurately reflect performance.

One LMP

The subgroup is also looking at ways to improve partnership at all levels of Kaiser Permanente and at the elements—from tools to training—that affect its success.

“Our group is trying to establish the principles of partnership and ensure they’re applied consistently across regions,” says Rita Essaian, an executive administrator with Southern California Permanente Medical Group.

“No matter what region you’re in, the partnership should be the same,” says Ruby Robley, a respiratory therapist at Antioch Medical Center in Northern California and an SEIU-UHW member. “We need One LMP, just like One KP.”

First-timers excel

Many of this year’s negotiators are new to bargaining in partnership, including manager Casper Yu, the director of Dental Sales and Marketing in the Northwest. “I love how this process works,” he says. “We negotiate and still come out with great personal and working relationships. I tell people, ‘This is what it truly means to be in partnership. I get it now.’”

Operational and Service Excellence in Partnership is one of three subgroups tasked with crafting the next National Agreement. The other two are Total Health and Workplace Safety and Work of the Future.

Visit bargaining2015.org for more information, videos and slideshows and to sign up for bargaining updates.

Finding ways to help Kaiser Permanente employees enjoy long, healthy, productive lives is the mission of the Total Health and Workplace Safety subgroup.

The subgroup, one of three in national bargaining this year, will expand upon the achievements of the 2012 National Agreement. It will also address how Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions can partner to improve the total health of the communities we serve.

Delivering exceptional care and service and supporting a healthier, injury-free workforce go hand in hand. “We can’t provide quality, affordable care to our members and communities unless we first provide a safe and respectful environment that promotes the collective health of our workforce,” says Kathy Gerwig, Kaiser Permanente’s vice president of employee safety, health and wellness and the management co-lead for the subgroup.

Personal and collective health

In 2012, negotiators established the groundbreaking Total Health Incentive Plan. The wellness program encourages employees to assess their own health and aim for collective improvement in measures like cholesterol and body mass index. In addition, healthy employees can serve as role models for Kaiser Permanente patients.

This year, the parties will suggest ways to create a healthier, safer work environment by improving employee access to services such as wellness coaching and better understanding trends in workplace violence and prevention. Another goal is to encourage employees to eat healthily, exercise at breaks and prevent workplace violence and intimidation.  

Expanding wellness to communities

In a first for national bargaining, the subgroup will also suggest ways to bring a holistic approach to wellness into communities Kaiser Permanente serves, especially those with limited access to healthy food, affordable health services and places to exercise.

“Our union members tend to live in communities that have high needs around health or issues around violence,” says Meg Niemi, the president of SEIU Local 49 and also a union co-lead for the subgroup. “So our members have an interest in their communities being healthier and safer further upstream, before they need critical care.”

The other two subgroups tasked with crafting recommendations are Work of the Future and Operational and Service Excellence in Partnership. (For more on Work of the Future, watch this slideshow and read this article.) Negotiators are developing a tentative agreement that will become the National Agreement after it is approved by Kaiser Permanente leadership and ratified by union locals this summer.

Visit bargaining2015.org for more information, videos and slideshows, and to sign up for bargaining updates.

Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions began national bargaining on March 30—and the negotiations have gotten attention from the press in California, including an article in the Sacramento Business Journal and a report on KQED public radio.

The negotiations are likely to be the largest private-sector contract talks in the United States this year. Some 150 negotiators are coming together from all over the country every two weeks through June to craft the new national agreement, which serves as the union contract for more than 100,000 Kaiser Permanente workers represented by coalition unions.

Hear from union members, management and union co-leads and see how the next national agreement is being created: Watch a three-minute video that captures the spirit of the National Bargaining kickoff and view this slideshow from the first negotiations.

Stay up to date at bargaining2015.org.

Equipping frontline workers with the skills and knowledge for tomorrow’s jobs—an essential element in preserving Kaiser Permanente’s competitive edge—is the focus of the Work of the Future subgroup at National Bargaining.

The negotiations this year focus on three topics, in addition to wages and benefits:

• Workforce planning
• Training and development
• Innovation and technology

“Health care is changing,” says Hal Ruddick, the executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. “We have a huge new influx of members because of the Affordable Care Act. We have to meet their needs differently—and we can do that through the solutions we create bargaining in partnership.”

Planning for change

Flexibility, foresight and planning are essential to developing a workforce that is ready for coming changes in the health care industry, said Zeth Ajemian, the director of Workforce Planning and Development for Southern California and Hawaii.

“To prepare our workforce for the future, we need to align staffing with current care delivery transformation, innovation and new technologies that meet the evolving needs of our members,” he says. “We're entering a tremendous era of change. A portion or all of an employee's work will change and their skills, training and experience will need to change to fit that job.”

Creating career pathways that allow current KP employees to move into new roles is essential, says Brian Lockhart, security lead at Sunnyside Medical Center in the Northwest and a member of ILWU Local 28.

“We want some flexibility around the experience component,” says Lockhart, who explained that employees who have trained for new roles are sometimes unable to move into them because they don’t have the necessary work experience.

Role of technology

Leveraging technology to meet the emerging needs of our patients will be another key issue for the bargaining team, says Dennis Dabney, senior vice president of Labor Relations and the Labor Management Partnership.

“We need to decide how we bring that new technology into our work environment,” he says. “We need to react more to what our patients want, rather than what we want to give them.”

Whatever innovations are designed and implemented in the future, frontline workers need to be engaged from the start, say union partners.

“Kaiser Permanente is on that bullet train toward the future and if the labor movement is not on that train, we are going to be left behind,” says Janis Thorn, interim president of United Steelworkers Local 7600.

Work of the Future is one of three subgroups tasked with crafting the next National Agreement. The other two are Total Health and Workplace Safety, and Operational and Service Excellence in Partnership.

Visit bargaining2015.org for more information, videos and slideshows, and to sign up for bargaining updates.

Good things happen when more members join Kaiser Permanente.

Kaiser Permanente and our unions gain strength and stability. Good jobs become more available and secure. More people in our communities benefit from KP’s affordable, quality care.

And all KP employees can help make those things happen.

For example, the Labor Management Partnership and KP’s sales and marketing organization work together in unique ways to build KP health plan membership. Thanks to their efforts, in 2014:

• 125,000 KP members joined or stayed with the health plan. 
• 100,000 KP members or potential members got letters from their local unions encouraging them to select KP during open enrollment.
• KP union ambassadors reached 20,000 potential KP members at worksite, community and union events in five regions.

Workers tell their story

In addition, thousands of KP workers, managers and physicians in unit-based teams win and keep KP members by delivering great care and service every day.

Louise Casa, a nurse practitioner, UFCW Local 400 member and union ambassador in the Mid-Atlantic States, says all workers have stories to tell about what makes KP a better place to give and get care.

“I share the story of being part of a partnership that values union workers and their ideas,” she says. “I talk about our unit-based team work on goals for care improvement, problem solving and workflow improvement in our departments. People in the community been very interested in the UBT process.”

What you can do

Everyone has a role to play in helping Kaiser Permanente grow and retain its membership. It starts with the work we do every day to serve members and patients:

• Deliver the best member experience. If you know someone is a new member, take an extra minute to explain how things work.
• Encourage members to sign up for kp.org. Surveys show that members who sign on are more likely to stay with Kaiser Permanente.
• Look for ways to improve work processes or cut waste, to help keep KP affordable for the people we serve.

Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions have reached a formal agreement that ensures the safety and compensation of KP employees involved in caring for patients with the Ebola virus.

The agreement, reached December 15, 2014, clarifies questions coalition unions had about the engagement and protection of their members who may encounter or care for a patient with Ebola. It codifies standards outlined by the Centers for Disease Control around protective protocols and equipment. It also outlines training and support provided to employees, including for employees who may be unable to work during an isolation period for a possible Ebola exposure.

Safeguarding workers and patients

“As health care workers, we’re used to putting our patients first,” said Ken Deitz, president of United Nurses Associations of California (UNAC). “Because Ebola is an infectious disease, to maintain patient safety we also had to ensure our own safety.”

The parties came to agreement quickly and with little disagreement, with conversations focused on clarifying the practices KP facilities already are doing as outlined by Centers for Disease Control guidelines.

Union and KP leaders say it reflects their desire to work together—and to continue to focus on educating, protecting and preparing employees who may come in contact with Ebola patients.

“By working together, we have ensured that employees are prepared to care for patients with Ebola while keeping themselves and their colleagues protected from infection,” said Kathy Gerwig, vice president of Employee Safety, Health and Wellness for KP.

Education, training and protection

Specific provisions of the agreement include:

• All employees with the potential to interact with, treat, or do cleaning or waste handling for suspected Ebola patients will receive paid time for education and training in such areas as Ebola signs and symptoms; care and treatment; proper donning and doffing of personal protective equipment; proper cleaning of treatment rooms or areas; and proper disposal of the patient’s body fluids and wastes.
• Employees in key treatment or intake areas will receive sufficient personal protective equipment supplies.
• Ebola treatment teams would be staffed by volunteers. If there are not enough volunteers, local KP and union leaders would identify team members.
• If a coalition union-represented employee cannot work, or receives care as a result of work-related exposure to Ebola, the employee will receive paid time off, and all medical costs will be covered through workers’ compensation.

Read the agreement.