The Finish!

Over a week ago, the final tentative agreement was presented, approved unanimously by consensus, and we all stood up and cheered and applauded. Both sides clearly felt that their interests were met. 9% ATBs, and extra 9% for NoCal psychologists to bring us up to parity with SoCal, and NO LOSSES in our benefit package. We are protected for two years. The agreement was that we will work in partnership with management to find a way to keep on affording our benefits, especially medical and retiree medical. The great unknown is how health care reform will impact Kaiser. one thing we do know, the new markets opening up in Medical and medicare, are not very profitable. We must expand in to new markets and new regions. I hear critics of our union say that we are "corporate", and not "democratic". I believe that those two constructs are wedded in the LMP. Both labor and management have one common interest for sure - keeping the business profitable over the long haul. You may know by now that in my IBHS Bargaining Unit, there is a petition at the NLRB for a a decertification election. let us all make sure that we reap the benefits of months of hard work on this contract by spreading the word. If we decertify SEIU-UHW, there will be no raises, no LMP, no coalition membership, and possible large increases in our cost of benefits. Tell everyone to be sure and RATIFY this agreement, and VOTE NO to NUHW!

Waiting....

For the "real deal" is a challenge. The proposals, that I am not able to reveal tonight, are in management's court. The executive teams from management and labor have caucused numerous times today. We have been instructed to be cautious in what we say on the blogs and e-mails. I have been very impressed by the solidarity that has been demonstrated by this diverse coalition. We all have widely varying issues and concerns, yet we manage to reach consensus. Our common interest as brothers and sisters, employees and employer, is to sustain the business that feeds us. Last night John August spoke of the "tragedy of the commons"- a situation in which multiple individuals, acting independently, and solely and rationally consulting their own self-interest, will ultimately deplete a shared limited resource even when it is clear that it is not in anyone's long-term interest for this to happen. This thing called "The Partnership" is a treasure. And our jobs- there is no Health care system in the world today that is as elegant as kaiser Permanente, and we have the best health care jobs in the world. We must not repeat the "tragedy", and preserve our sustaining "commons".
I am eagerly anticipating a signed agreement tonight!

The Final Stretch

Here we are at the table again....and still no discussion of wages and benefits. Labor fine tuned our final language from the past three weeks of work in the subgroups. We were all feeling very hopeful, when we found out that the right people, the actual decision makers, have not been a part of the process. After hours of thoughtful deliberation, we were told that management did not intend to re-write the National Agreement, they just intended to meet with us and figure out ways to improve it!
Of course, we did not roll over, and after a long hard day, we won most of the changes that we agreed on two weeks ago. I was there, and I saw all of the thumbs pointing up.
Tonight, we were given the financial reports, a repetition of the very first day of bargaining last month. It is pretty clear that concessions will be expected. We are girding ourselves for the actual bargaining, starting at 9:00 A.M. Many of us are tired and our patience has worn thin with these long days of repetitive discussion. One sister compared this to a courtroom, with both sides presenting their cases, and asked when we would be getting down to the real nitty gritty. It certainly broke the tension in the room, and labor applauded her for her candor.
We all stand firm in our commitment to accept no benefit reductions, and to come away with wage increases.
Tomorrow night we should know more, so stay tuned!

National Bargaining Notes- Week 3

It's been a long and productive, and tiring week. This time I was accompanied by stewards Joel Levitt and Brenda Tolbert, who attended as observers. That is an understatement- their ability to attend other subgroups was invaluable. We also worked on summarizing the results of our bargaining survey to give to Dave Regan. More importantly, our chapter had additional representation.
The subgroups presented their recommendations to the Coalition Caucus of the Common Interest Committee, and we reached consensus on all. The big sticking point, front loaded sick leave, was settled with a compromise to receive their annual allotment on the anniversary date instead of in January.
My subgroup on LMP broke out in to three smaller groups, and that worked well. We recommended that a joint committee be chartered to develop and implement a means for building direct accountability for improving the partnership, that trust resources be expanded, and that there be an educational curriculum developed to foster business, union and contract literacy. We felt this is particularly important for middle managers and physicians.
We want timely resolution of disputes and grievances, and methods to share and adopt best practices.
We recommended a universal UBT rating system be established to help increase and reward the number of high performers, and to identify and support under-achieving UBTs.
The final plenary session today consisted of labor and management presenting their final interests.
I will provide a summary of both in my next post.
In Unity,
Therese

Notes from National Bargaining Week 2

Here we are again, this time in Burlingame, and we are starting to reach some common ground in the LMP subgroup. As if it isn't difficult enough to develop common interests between labor and management, just add other unions and bargaining units within our union to complicate the process! Our members and observers are eager to tell our stories of success and failure of the LMP, but some members were not thrilled with "anecdotes", and chastised others to not try and "micro bargain" the LMP. Our labor caucus developed a sound set of interests and options that we felt were critical:
Themes were funding, accountability, and transparency. Labor wants to ensure that management is contributing their fair share, as well as sharing fairly. In other words "show us the money"! Where is it coming from, and how is it allocated. We were given a presentation on the LMP Trust, 2/3 of which is funded by labor.
The accountability piece involves both sides being held fully accountable for successful UBTs. We are asking for a sophisticated research process to determine the best new model for health care, not necessarily the brand.
I believe that our strongest common interest is using the Partnership to expand our model into new markets. This is clearly a potential win-win for both sides- a vibrant, growing organization with market and job stability.
Staying focused and unified has been challenging. Management was blown away by our proposals, and I think mainly because they were so good- realistic and comprehensive. They needed some extra time tonight to caucus and digest the latest round of information.
Tonight, our UHW Caucus was positive. The Attendance subgroup is being pressured to give up front loaded sick leave, and are being asked to develop some other options. That seems to be the one issue management wants labor to give back. Other unions use PTO/ETO, as does our unit, the IBHS salaried Mental Health Providers.
We reconvene tomorrow at 9:00 A.M.
More later. Bear with me, I will get more specific tomorrow night.

The First Round of Bargaining

I represent Integrated Behavioral Health Services Chapter on the Common Issues Committee, and I am assigned to the sub group working on LMP Issues.
I have been here in Oakland since Monday, learning the ropes- The "Rules of Engagement" in Interest Based Negotiations. It is easier said than done!
The number of members involved in this process is phenomenal and unprecedented. Yet the scope of bargaining is narrower than 2005, and more accelerated. Instead of 9 BTG's, there are 4 "sub groups", and we are expected to finish by the end of May, with three more three day sessions. From UHW, there are 26 rank and file members on the CIC. The two staffers are Dave Regan, Trustee, and Jose Simoes, Kaiser Division Director.
The first day, KP leaders displayed some data for us to digest: essentially, membership is down, revenue is down, and we need a certain margin to sustain operations. After that came a powerful speech from Dave Regan, who let everyone know that Labor is not prepared to give anything back. He suggested that we should expand the partnership externally, and work together to stake a claim on the new markets. He likened the new markets produced by Health Care Reform as the next "land rush". This is a transformational event that will never again occur in our lifetime.
We all agree with President Obama that KP is, and should be, the model for the future of Health Care Delivery.
In discussing externalization of the Partnership, Dave Regan cautioned KP not to end up like the Auto Industry, who did not listen to UAW, and ignored the outside world. We have the best Health Care Product, and we need to promote the model, and not the brand. An important point he raised, is that we do nothing to publicize or contest the low end performers in the market, who are reimbursed at the same rate as high performers like KP.
In our sub group on LMP, we began to develop specific recommendations on what KP and the CKPU should focus on over the next several years. The two major areas identified were Improving the Partnership Internally by holding all managers accountable, and working together to develop and promote the KP Model as a Labor Driven Organization with the Patient always at the center of the value compass.
Tune in for the progress report on session 2 in two weeks.
Cordially,
Therese