On Tuesday, August 28, national bargaining will resume in Los Angeles. If you haven’t yet signed our bargaining pledge​, please sign ​now! 

Next week’s meeting is the first full negotiating session since July. We’ve made some progress on a new contract, but we still have a lot of ground to cover. The Alliance of Health Care Unions is strong and united, and we won’t settle until we get good agreements at both the national and local levels.

We’ve been able to reach some agreements with management, including a commitment to set up a new Labor Management Partnership Trust between our Alliance and Kaiser Permanente. We have also agreed to continue funding the widely-used partnership career development program, with a new trust – if necessary – to replace the Ben Hudnall Memorial Trust. We’ve also agreed on several measures to get the Partnership back on track, including more consistent and frequent training, and establishing timelines and agreements to solve issues at the regional level.

But there are significant challenges ahead. Management has not withdrawn their proposal to get rid of our industry-leading “no cancellation” policy, allowing shifts to be canceled, without pay, with as little as two hours’ notice. They also continue to insist on changing our active medical benefits.

Management says they want to bring our wages “in line with the market,” but we are united on honoring our longstanding joint commitment to industry-leading wages. We are determined to continue to be industry leaders, not followers, on the best wages and best care! 

What you can do: If you have not yet signed our pledge, please do it today!​