Day 13 of National Bargaining--Final Outcome

Friday, May 28, 2010

Final report-out on National Bargaining

Brothers and Sisters,

** We WILL NOT BE ON THE TIME SYSTEM!
** We have kept all of our BENEFITS, INcluding ALL of our SICK Days!
** We got three years of raises,
** AND will be negotiating locally for a differential for the Chapter, for our HARD-to-FILL CLASSIFICATION!

At National Bargaining, management insisted on settling, and finalizing all, "economic" issues. They did not want to bargain locally on anything that would cost them money.

We negotiated one exception, for our Chapter!

The Medical Social Work Chapter will have the ability to negotiate over
one ADDITIONAL economic issue, which the bargaining team believes should be a wage differential for our Chapter, due to the fact that we are a, "Hard-to-Fill" classification.

THIS IS IN ADDITION TO OUR 3% WAGE INCREASE:
 10/1/2010 3% Across the Board
 10/1/2011 3% Across the Board
 10/1/2012: 3% Across the Board, if no new National Agreement is reached in 2012,

You last heard from me on Thursday, May 27, 2010 at 11:35 PM. We had been in and out of bargaining/caucusing all day. We were called back to caucus at 1:30 AM, Friday morning (May 28, 2010), went back to sleep at about 2:30 AM only to be awakened at 3:00 AM for another caucus, specifically on the negotiation of our MSW issues.
We discussed, caucused, bargained until around 6:45 AM, had breakfast, and while returning to the 8:00 AM Coalition final planetary session, were handed the final agreement from management.

We were limited to one economic issue, and three non-economic issues.
We spent hours analyzing and costing out each item, we conference-called with bargaining unit members who were not present. We presented the following list to management.
The non-economic issues are broad, enabling us the ability to fold multiple issues into each category.

Management has agreed to BARGAIN locally with us, starting June 15-August 15, 2010.
These bargaining sessions will be conducted using Interest Based Bargaining, with a facilitator.

Our Medical Social Work Chapter will bargain on the following:

1. A Wage differential for ALL Medical Social Workers in the bargaining unit, based on our, "Hard-to-Fill" classification.

There were multiple economic issues we had to choose from. The reason why we choose the Hard-to-fill classification was that it would allow every single Medical Social Worker in our bargaining unit to get an additional raise, regardless of per Diem, short hour, regular full time, MSW or LCSW.

EVERY MEMBER OF OUR CHAPTER WILL BE ELIGIBLE TO RECEIVE THIS NEGOTIATED DIFFERENTIAL!

2. Job postings and bidding.

This may include (and is not limited to) our job descriptions included in the contract; postings to last 7 days as opposed to 5; the ability of OUR bargaining unit members to bid on, and hold more than one Medical Social Work position at a time.
If the held positions add up to 20 or more hours a week, the member would become a benefited employee. If the position requires the employee to travel between different medical facilities on the same day, Kaiser pays for travel time and mileage. The creation of contract language stating all new MSW positions for new programs, changed programs, or changes to job duties aside from those duties outlined in our job description, are subject to mandatory bargaining. (We actually got this language into the National Agreement).

3. Scope of Practice.

We need to define what we do as Medical Social Workers; MSW and LCSW, how our practice relates to Ca law, what differentiates us from all of the other disciplines, and diagnosis specific Social Work services. This will involve membership engagement, is a huge undertaking, and is long overdue.

4. The Professional Standards and Issues Committee converting to a Regional Labor Management Partnership Committee. Elections would be held for these seats. Agreements made on this committee would have enforceable language. This could be a structure for resolving such issues such as Staffing & Backfill. We could propose a sub-committee, the Contract Maintenance committee, to discuss and standardize contractual issues across the region. In this way, local contract interpretation would become standardized and not left up to different local Employee Labor Relations Consultants.

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The following is a summary of other important wins!

What we won in 2010 National Bargaining

Protected All Benefits:

 No changes to existing benefits (Healthcare, Retiree Health, Pension).

Everything remains the same through September 30, 2013!

 There will be a new joint committee that will examine current and future employee healthcare costs and ways to control cost increases in the future while preserving quality healthcare benefits for Kaiser employees, retirees and their families. Any recommendations must be made only with agreement by the unions and management. No changes to benefits will be implemented during the life of this Agreement.

 Healthcare Reimbursement Account (HRA), from the 2008 Reopener, is now a part of the National Agreement. The HRA allows employees to convert 80% of unused sick time into an account to supplement existing medical, dental, and vision benefits after retirement.

Secured Long Term Job Security:

 The Employment and Income Security Agreement will remain in effect. This Agreement guarantees at least one year of pay in the event of a position elimination. It also requires extensive efforts to redeploy workers into other comparable jobs rather than lay them off.

 Added new language that requires the parties to engage in workforce development and planning (which includes education, training, and career counseling, among others) as soon as the union has been notified of the need for redeployment or position eliminations.

 A top-level Committee of leaders in Kaiser and Partnership unions, called the Joint Strategic Initiative for Growth, will be established. This committee’s goal will be to ensure that Kaiser’s membership grows as a result of National Healthcare Reform and other changes in the healthcare market, thus enhancing the long-term job security of existing Kaiser employees.

Increased Wages:

 10/1/2010 3% Across the Board

 10/1/2011 3% Across the Board

 10/1/2012: 3% Across the Board, if no new National Agreement is reached in 2012.

Improved Sick Day Cash-out:

 Employees who have one year’s worth of sick leave in their sick leave bank since 2006 will be able to cash out up to 10 days of that time at an increased rate of 75% at the end of each year (up from 50%). If you don’t have a full year in the bank, you can still cash out up to 10 days of unused sick time at 50% (this does not apply to our Chapter).

 Beginning in 2011, Sick days will now be frontloaded on the anniversary of the date of hire instead of on January 1st. To avoid any gaps or loss in sick time during the first year while Kaiser transitions to the new frontloading dates, Kaiser will frontload a pro-rated amount of sick days on January 1st and the full amount on your anniversary date of hire. (The Medical Social Workers already have this system in place).

o EXAMPLE: Jane Smith receives 12 sick days annually. Jane’s anniversary date of hire falls on July 1. In the first year, Jane will get 6 days of sick leave on January 1 and then she will get her full allotment of 12 days on July 1st.

Better Defined Performance Sharing Program (PSP):

 New language to provide that PSP bonuses will be based as much as possible on goals that are more directly connected to your work.

 New language to clarify that PSP factors are determined jointly by labor and management. They will be agreed on by the end of each year and communicated in January. Progress on meeting PSP goals will be reported quarterly to employees, where possible.

Strengthened Unit Based Teams (UBTs):

 New language to affirm that UBTs are the operating model for Kaiser Permanente.

 UBT goals need to be aligned with national, regional, facility and unit goals.

 New language that clarifies the 5 levels of UBT performance and recommends steps to improve the performance of UBTs.

 New goals and timelines over the next 3 years to increase the performance of UBTs.

 UBTs will be rated and tracked in a uniform, national system, which will be able to track high-performing teams so they can be recognized and rewarded. Mechanisms will be developed to identify and support under-achieving UBTs.

Greater Accountability and Funding for the Labor Management Partnership:

 Kaiser will increase its annual contribution to the LMP Trust to $10 million, which funds partnership activities, including LMP Trainings, UBT Trainings, Workforce Development, and many others.

 All newly hired Partner union and management employees should be scheduled for LMP training within 4 months of hire.

 A new committee was created to develop recommendations on how to build joint and direct accountability and for improving the Partnership, including a mechanism for frontline union workers and managers to give each other feedback on their partnership activity.

 The Leaders of the LMP will sign the National Agreement to create greater accountability.

 The Leaders of the LMP will work toward faster resolution of grievances and other disputes, resolving issues at the lowest level possible, providing necessary information to resolve disputes and empowering frontline managers and union stewards to solve problems collaboratively.

 The LMP Strategy Group’s committee on Healthy Workforce and Attendance will now include a union member.

 A new committee was created to address issues including staffing, backfill, and related budget matters. Continued Commitment to Education and Training:

 Kaiser will contribute 0.27% of total annual payroll of coalition represented employees to the Education Trusts to fund education and training programs for Kaiser employees (SEIU – UHW-W & Joint Employer Education Fund).

National Agreement only for Partnership Unions:

 New language states very clearly that the rights and benefits provided in the National Agreement only apply to workers represented by unions that are members of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.

Non-economic Local Bargaining to take place between June 15th and August 15th, 2010: (this list is for the Service Group)

 Local bargaining will focus on the following issues:

o Best practices between NCAL and SCAL on identified non-economic issues

o Schedule changes and schedule postings

o Conversion of on-call employees from non-benefited to benefited status

o Creation of float pools by service area and/or multi-site where possible and by

mutual agreement

o Co-management of contract specialists

o More effective joint management of steward training time

o Transfer process

o Working outside of job description

Term of the Agreement--for all UHW bargaining units

 2 years: 10/1/2010 – 9/30/2012

 Local Agreements (which incorporate the wages and benefits of the National

Agreement) are extended for two years, now ending 9/30/2013.

 All existing Sideletters and Memoranda of Agreement are extended with this

Agreement.


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The singed, Tentative Agreement document will be available at your local Contract Ratification/membership meetings--watch for the schedule!


In Unity, Rachelle