Day 11 of 2010 National Bargaining

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Brothers and Sisters,

My blog is a bit different today. I am starting it off with an email from a Sister Steward in Sacramento. She points out the difficulties we sometimes have with the consequences of bargaining Partnership principals and concepts in the National Agreement with one set of managers, and then being left to implement, as she puts it, “enforce” those bargained on principals’ with another set of managers.

I felt it was important to include her viewpoint and voice. As your elected representative, a good part of my "representative" duties are around moving forward the agenda of our Chapter/profession; providing a platform for our voices to be heard, our professional needs acknowledged, educating management on what we do and how we help Kaiser/our patients across the continuum, and increasing our professional visibility.

I then respond to her and give you an update on the events which transpired at bargaining today.



Sent: Wed, May 26, 2010 2:00 pm

Subject: Re: Rachelle's blog from National Bargaining Day 10

Rachelle, Yolanda, Alex and Jenna; Hang in there! Appreciate all you efforts. It seems some of bargaining is scripted. Kaiser sends in their deal makers but then it must be approved by those in power; much like we have to get ratification from our membership. The difficulty is always; the contract brokers (be they Leadership or Upper management) cut the deals and then they are gone. On to other positions; other programs or out of the System and we are left with people who never really were the ones who bought into any of the bargaining issues. We are left with trying to enforce concepts and contracts. I hope that you know that we are all thinking about you and want to support you while you go through this process. Sandy G. /Sacramento



My response and the update:



Sandy,

Thanks, and yes, at times it does feel scripted and at other times it feels incredibly organic and spontaneous.

During these bargaining sessions, important changes to the National Agreement have been made around increasing the accountability of management, and implementing the process of the, “Partnership.”

You are so right about when all is said and done, that we are left with management who were never at the table during bargaining, to try and implement or, “enforce” what was agreed on.

Nothing like experiencing an, "enforced" Partnership.

Even sounds vaguely vulgar. Like an arranged marriage where neither party wants the chosen mate.

The bargained on agreements, that were agreed on, by consensus, by both labor and management in the Common Issues Committee, and then by the National Bargaining Coordinating Committee, are 35 pages long. A complete report will go out sometime shortly after Friday.

Some exciting news: I heard today that the Coalition and Kaiser have really appreciated our Social Work feedback and comments during these negotiations.

We have never had representation at National Bargaining. This session we have three observer/participants (Yolanda, Alex I., and Jenna) in addition to my participation as our representative.

I really think that our presence and voices have increased the "visibility" of Social Work, thereby adding value to our profession in the eyes of both management, and our brothers and sisters in the Coalition Unions.

Just this evening, I was told by a member of the Executive Strategy Committee (the highest Partnership committee) that Medical Social Workers need to be included on more regional committees because of our breath of knowledge, depth of ability to provide culturally competent care to multiple demographics, and, expertise in systems assessment/management.

A large majority of the 32 million people who are to become eligible for health care in July are of the MedCal/Medicare demographic. The reimbursement rate for this demographic is very small. These are the folks who we will be providing services to in the Special Needs Program. Kaiser has already admitted that they do not have the knowledge or the experience to provide excellent patient care to this patient population, while at the same time profiting, or even breaking even.

Who better to educate Kaiser, and demonstrate to them that we, as an organization can provide excellent patient care which is cost-effective, than Medical Social Workers? It isn’t always about the bottom line.

As far as today went, we had very intense and very sensitive discussions.

Caucusing, more labor caucusing, and more labor caucusing.

We believe that there still is a way to reach agreement on the National Agreement which adheres to our goals:

Raises, no takeaways, and increase our job security.

Therefore, we are still at the bargaining table and fighting hard, but smart, for all of us!


In Unity,
Rachelle