After months of difficult bargaining on both local and national issues, it became clear KP management was doing everything they could to stall the process and try to wear down our members. Management tried to divide us in hopes of extracting concessions. They did everything from threatening to send workers home for wearing union shirts to spreading misinformation about the bargaining and strike processes.
Instead of backing down, we rose up and authorized a strike. We stood together at every location and showed KP we are willing to fight for what’s right. And we won! You’ve seen highlights of our Tentative Agreement, but we wanted to share more details about the issues most important to our members.
Wage Justice for the Inland Empire
Fighting for wage justice was a top priority, and we pushed hard with the backing of all of the unions in the Alliance. For months, KP refused to acknowledge the issue of wage injustice, but we kept up the fight until management was forced to begin addressing the issue. Even then, KP only wanted to throw lump sums at it instead of making permanent changes, so we ramped up our efforts. Our union pushed hard in countless bargaining sessions and you raised your voices at rallies, at work and on social media. And we won.
• Effective, July 1, 2022, KP will allocate an amount equivalent to 1.25% of payroll for the purpose of permanently adjusting wage scales in job classifications that have historically been paid significantly less than L.A. wages.
• July 1, 2023, KP will allocate another 1.25% of payroll for the same purpose.
• Together with KP, we will study all of the wage scales with LA wages to determine which classifications have the largest inequities. The Union and KP will work together to allocate monies from the dedicated pools to permanently raise the wage scales in those identified classifications.
These improvements demonstrate significant and permanent progress in our ongoing fight for Wage Equity.
The racial justice bargaining subcommittee also agreed on implementing processes and programs to address racial trauma/fatigue, and funding citizenship assistance.
Across the Board Raises – Alliance wide
KP started bargaining insisting that 1% wage increases were appropriate and that all future KP employees should make even less on an unfair two-tier wage structure. We fought back against proposed concessions and a lower wage scale to demand Alliance wide wage increases, and eventually won improvements totaling 10% raises over the term of the agreement. On top of the across the board raises, we achieved 2% bonuses in each of the last two years of the contract for a total of 4% in bonus pay. This means for someone making $50,000 that you will receive a $1,000 bonus in each of those years on top of the 2% increase.
Wages | 2021 | 2022 | 2023 | 2024 |
Across the Board | 3% | 3% | 2% | 2% |
Lump sum |
|
| 2% | 2% |
Ben Hudnall education fund
We won an additional $15 million for Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust to protect our educational benefits and advance our careers.
Staffing
We worked right up through the final hours to achieve improved staffing transparency and engagement. Regional labor management staffing committees will meet monthly to discuss issues like vacant or modified positions, backfill strategies, as well as reports on the status of filling vacancies. UBTs will now receive budget and backfill calculations quarterly. Labor and management will collaborate to address hard to fill positions and reduce the use of travelers and non-union employees. We will now receive monthly reports about patient satisfaction and access.
USW Local Bargaining Gains
We faced many challenges when we began local bargaining, but we did it with a collective strength and purpose KP could not ignore. Through local bargaining we achieved important gains including:
• Life Balance Day rollover that means effective January 1, 2023, employees eligible to receive Life Balance Days shall have all unused Life Balance Day hours at the end of the calendar year rolled over into the employee’s vacation account,
• On Call employees will now be guaranteed two pre-scheduled days off in all departments, which has not always been the case,
• An updated process to streamline seniority tie-breaking among employees hired on the same date,
• Overtime equalization training to educate managers on how to follow union CBAs when scheduling overtime, and
• A more transparent process to address agreements on posting temporary positions.
• The ability to have conversations and bargain to mutual agreement, with department and work areas over possible rotating/every-other-weekend scheduling, where applicable,
• A commitment to resume discussions on a program for new grad and inexperienced LVNs, with new levels of LVN to support it. In addition, to explore creative ways to address other “grow-your-own” opportunities such as career ladders, apprenticeships, and preceptor program opportunities.
• Modified grievance processing language to address KP’s frequent delay tactics, and
• A comprehensive line-by-line review of our local agreement to address outdated language, processes and procedures for our CBA to better reflect the current experience at KP.
Big Victory!
In the end, our local gave zero concessions, fought off two-tiered wages, and secured permanent wage scale improvements over the life of the contract. This is what solidarity looks like. The next step for the Alliance is to hold the Bargaining Delegates Conference on November 17, 2021, where the TA will be reviewed. If approved, each local will hold ratification votes for local and national agreements where each attendee will receive an informational packet including explanations for all agreements reached.