Kaiser Permanente will avoid a showdown with nurses this weekend after the HMO extended contract talks beyond a Saturday night deadline, to next Friday.
The extension preserves the nation's largest nurses' contract, governing 10,000 nurses at 54 facilities throughout Northern and Central California, through at least next week. Kaiser and the California Nurses Association have scheduled bargaining sessions for Tuesday, Thursday and Friday and called off the talks set for this weekend. Nurses will continue working barring a breakdown in negotiations, which could trigger a 10-day notice to strike.
Nurses also extended talks at Tenet HealthSystem's Doctors[SRT1] Medical Center in San Pablo and Pinole. The two sides remain at odds over retirement and retiree health benefits and staffing and are set to meet Thursday.
The nurses union rejected Kaiser's latest proposal, extended Thursday night, as not competitive with contracts recently negotiated at other Bay Area hospitals, including Alta Bates Summit Medical Center in Berkeley and Oakland, which is owned by Sutter Health, and Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, also owned by Sutter, and UCSF. Kaiser offered a 21.6 percent increase over four years, but the union said that is 6 percent to 8 percent below wages at other Northern California hospitals.
The two sides also remain at odds over pensions, retiree benefits, mandatory overtime and staffing levels.
The union says that at uncompetitive contract could lead to a nurse exodus from Kaiser, since the state is in the midst of a nurse shortage and facing new state-imposed nurse-to-patient rations that mean hospitals will have to find even more nurses over the coming months.
"The offer maintains a second-class status for RNs," said Charles Idelson, spokesman for the nurses union. "They certainly have the resources to lead the market and not be the tail on the market."
Eliminating mandatory overtime is also a high priority for nurses. The CNA is demanding that Kaiser eliminate mandatory overtime except in public emergencies. During the past two years, the union has successfully negotiated clauses banning mandatory overtime at many Bay Area hospitals. The practice is disruptive for nurses and unsafe for patients, said Deborah Burger, chair of the CNA's bargaining team for Kaiser nurses .
A spokesman for Kaiser said the organization wants to reserve its ability to use mandatory overtime in emergencies. Mandatory overtime isn't consistent with the type of environment Kaiser wants to create, said Terry Lightfoot. However, rather than amending the contract language, the HMO wants to make sure it doesn't need mandatory overtime by hiring more nurses. Since January, Kaiser has hired more than 1,000 licensed nurses.
Regarding staffing, the CNA is asking that Kaiser meet a ratio of one registered nurse per every four patients on medical-surgical wards, where most hospital care takes place. Kaiser has committed to a one-to-four ratio. But the HMO intends to hire both registered nurses as well as licensed vocational nurses -- nurses with less training who must be overseen by RNs.
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