Kaiser’s Northern California senior vice president for human resources told the Sacramento Business Journal that—despite SEIU-UHW’s claims that picketing has brought management back to the table— Kaiser has no intention of renegotiating the backroom deal SEIU made in secret on Aug. 3.

The union is mad that Kaiser sent out job elimination notices … and claims picketing has brought management back to the table. A bargaining session on the proposed job eliminations in Northern California will be help Sept. 30, union officials said.

Kaiser management will attend the Sept. 30 meeting to “discuss and share information regarding the implementation of the agreement signed by SEIU-UHW on Aug. 3,” [Kaiser HR VP] Westfall said in an e-mail Tuesday.

“We believe that this unique agreement and the intensive engagement that led to it more than fulfilled our bargaining obligations. Kaiser Permanente has honored the agreement and expects SEIU-UHW to do the same,” she said.

Click here for the details on SEIU’s backroom deal, or click the link below to read the full news story.

Kaiser union workers rally against job cuts

by Kathy Roberston, Sacramento Business Journal

Union workers are picketing Kaiser Permanente’s South Sacramento Medical Center on Tuesday to protest company plans to slash 1,350 jobs in coming months to offset enrollment losses and declining margins.

A total of 48 jobs are in jeopardy at the South Sacramento hospital, according to Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West. The union represents 1,438 radiology and operating room technicians, environmental service and others at the medical center and surrounding clinics.

Pickets are planned from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. at the hospital on Bruceville Road and at Kaiser’s regional office in Pasadena.

The rallies are part of a five-week campaign to protest Kaiser’s announcement last month that it wants to cut 1,850 jobs statewide — including 1,350 positions represented by UHW — even though the company reported net income of $620 million for the quarter ended June 30. That’s up from net income of $451 million for the same quarter last year.

Kaiser is the largest private-sector employer in the Sacramento region, with more than 9,600 full-time equivalent employees at three hospital campuses and several medical offices.

“We’re here to show our faces and say we don’t approve of the layoffs and want to sit down at the table and bargain over this,” said Keturah James, a union member who works in hospital staffing at Kaiser’s South Sacramento hospital.

The Oakland-based health plan and health system already has taken measures to cut costs but faces challenges due to declining membership resulting from California’s high unemployment rate, lower Medicare reimbursement and potential changes related to health care reform, Kaiser officials say.

The company has offered a generous severance package and hopes enough workers take it to avoid layoffs, Gay Westfall, Kaiser’s Northern California senior vice president for human resources, explained in a news release.

More than 100 employees have applied for voluntary separation so far and Kaiser expects more to apply, Westfall said.

The union is mad that Kaiser sent out job elimination notices in August shortly after it kicked off the voluntary separation plan and claims picketing has brought management back to the table.

A bargaining session on the proposed job eliminations in Northern California will be help Sept. 30, union officials said.

Kaiser management will attend the Sept. 30 meeting to “discuss and share information regarding the implementation of the agreement signed by SEIU-UHW on Aug. 3,” Westfall said in an e-mail Tuesday.

“We believe that this unique agreement and the intensive engagement that led to it more than fulfilled our bargaining obligations. Kaiser Permanente has honored the agreement and expects SEIU-UHW to do the same,” she said.

Management continues to meet with SEIU-UHW and other unions to implement the process — but all future meetings about job eliminations will be for this purpose and not to renegotiate the agreement already signed, she said.

Source: Sacramento Business Journal