Kaiser reaches 4-year deal with labor groups to avoid strike

Kaiser Permanente workers protest outside the Downey campus in May 2019. Photo by Alex Dominguez

DOWNEY — Kaiser Permanente has reached a tentative agreement with nearly a dozen labor groups on a new 4-year contract, avoiding a potentially disruptive work stoppage scheduled to begin next month.

Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions agreed to the labor deal Tuesday. The agreement covers nearly 85,000 Kaiser employees across 11 local unions.

The agreement follows nearly five months of active bargaining that began in April. It will now go to coalition union members for ratification, where voting is expected to be completed by the end of October.

If ratified, the contract will have an effective date of Oct. 1, 2019, and will cover more than 85,000 healthcare workers: 67,000 in California; 8,300 in Oregon and Washington; 3,100 in Colorado; 5,000 in Maryland, Washington, D.C., and northern Virginia; and 1,000 in Hawaii.

Coalition employees represent hundreds of job classifications, from optometrists and pharmacists to maintenance and service workers.

The new labor deal includes guaranteed wage increases each year through 2023; opportunities for career growth; a new multimillion-dollar workforce development fund to provide educational opportunities for California who may not otherwise be able to pursue a career in healthcare; retirement benefits; and an additional $250 for employee travel as part of the tuition reimbursement program raising the total to $750.

Kaiser and the coalition also agreed to a list of jobs that will not be outsourced or subcontracted for the life of the contract. The list of jobs was not made public.

The agreement includes a pharmacy utilization approach that incentives employees to use its mail-order prescription service.