Day 1 of 2010 National Bargaining

Tuesday April 6, 2010



After a day of training with my Kaiser Brothers and Sisters, today we came together with all of our Coalition Brothers and Sisters and Kaiser Management.

Management presented a very lengthy power point presentation that included lots of colorful charts and graphs. Basically, they were trying to set the stage for doom and gloom with regards to the economy and, preparing us for take-aways. It was very clear that Management was preparing us for proposed reductions in benefits.



But the thing about statistics is that they can be interpreted differently depending on the context.



John August, the President of the Coalition then used some of the same data from those graphs and sides to demonstrate how, through the Partnership, labor has been the driving force for accomplishing so many of Kaisers goals/deliverables. He went on to further outline how investing in the Partnership, in front-line employees is the key strategy for shared success. The challenges we face today are largely external and that the Partnership is designed to keep us safe from these forces. That the Partnership is an opportunity for us to navigate through difficult times.



Additionally, SEIU-UHW Trustee Dave Regan gave a very eloquent and passionate speech reinforcing that the Partnership is the key to Kaiser's "sustainability", ( a key word used repetitively by Management). He challenged Kaiser to join with labor to create social change politically through legislative action. He challenged Kaiser to show us Kaiser's plan to capture the market share of the 32 million people who will soon be eligible to have health care as a result of the new health care reform. He made it very clear that we will not accept any reduction to our benefits.



Jeffrey Weisz, Executive Medical Director of Southern California Permanent Group tried to tell us that National Bargaining was not unlike having a "Family Meeting." And at the same time he latter tried to engage Dave in a contentious argument about Attendance.



It didn't work, as Dave was able to bring the dialogue back to what is important to labor -- that we will not accept any reductions and do not want Kaiser to think of labor as the problem causing Kaiser's financial troubles.

He reemphasised that we have to work together on finding the solutions, expanding the focus of the Partnership to include shaping the external world (policies and capturing the share of the soon to be newly insured).