Kaiser Permanente and the nearly 100,000 members of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, reached tentative agreement yesterday on a new, three-year national contract. The tentative agreement covers workers at hundreds of Kaiser Permanente health care facilities in nine states. The current agreement expires Sept. 30.

The tentative agreement includes wage increases and maintains current benefits plus improves the dental plan.  Kaiser Permanente also has committed $19 million annually to two existing educational trust funds to ensure career development for its diverse workforce.

According to the unions and Kaiser, the new tentative agreement includes measurable performance improvement goals for Kaiser Permanente unit-based health care teams.  It also provides for continued performance sharing bonus payments tied, on a regional basis, to the achievement of quality, service, financial, health, and preventive screening goals.

John August, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions says:

Health care simply costs too much, and as union workers we are absolutely committed to addressing cost and access – as well as care and quality. The agreements we made today provide union members with the tools to improve care and efficiency – rather than chop care or benefits.  Improvement, delivered by workers at the frontline, is the key to extending quality care to every person in our country.

The workers are represented by 28 different local unions, and include hundreds of job classifications including registered nurses, pharmacists, maintenance and service workers, technicians of many kinds, psychologists, lab scientists, and many others.