Kaiser, nurses settle, ending threat of strike

Kaiser Permanente and its nurses have settled a long-simmering contract dispute, warding off a strike that had been called for Wednesday and Thursday for 86 Kaiser facilities, including the north Modesto center.

The California Nurses Association announced the settlement Saturday, calling it “a settlement that is likely to elevate RN standards across the nation.” The three-year pact, expected to be ratified over the next few weeks, affects about 18,000 registered nurses and nurse practitioners.

The deal provides 14 percent in raises spread over three years and higher contributions to nurse 401(k) pension plans, according to the CNA. In a statement, the group lauded provisions to give nurses a stronger voice on patient care and improvements in workplace protections.

The deal also includes a first-in-the-nation provision for paid leave to assist with emergency response to disasters around the world.

Kaiser Permanente posted a statement about the settlement, saying it accomplished the company’s key priorities of containing long-term liabilities, offering affordable benefits and providing operational flexibility in the workplace.

“This agreement is aligned with our commitment to improve our quality and affordability and to be a national model for the delivery of health care,” said Gregory Adams, Northern California regional president of Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan Inc.

Nurses said key to the settlement was the agreement by Kaiser to establish a joint committee of management and nurses who work directly with patients to have input on care standards at Kaiser facilities.

“We look forward to a new chapter in our interactions with Kaiser,” said CNA Executive Director RoseAnn DeMoro. “We especially appreciate the commitment of Kaiser’s leadership to addressing our concerns, including working through the complicated problems associated with the changes in health care delivery, some of them related to the Affordable Care Act, and the attention it has paid in this contract to the health and safety of its registered nurses as well as patients.”

Other aspects of the contract detailed by nurses were a commitment to hire hundreds of RNs, lower patient-to-staff ratios, and additional workplace protections for nurses, spanning workplace violence to infectious diseases such as Ebola.

The paid release time for disasters is for up to 25 RNs per year to participate in National Nurses United’s disaster relief program. The Registered Nurse Response Network has dispatched hundreds of RNs to provide basic medical services after disasters such as Hurricane Katrina and the Haiti earthquake.

“We greatly respect and value our nurses,” Adams said. “Although we have had disagreements at times with CNA, as this agreement reflects, we have been able to work through those disagreements and ultimately agree on common goals that are in the best interests of our members, employees and our entire organization.”

The deal follows six months of hard bargaining that included a nurses strike on Nov. 11 and 12.

This story was originally published January 17, 2015 at 8:43 PM with the headline "Kaiser, nurses settle, ending threat of strike."