Kaiser, union leaders reach tentative agreement
SAN FRANCISCO - Kaiser Permanente and a union representing 75,000 of its workers have reached a tentative contract agreement, union officials announced early Friday morning.
Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West announced the agreement on social media a little after 4 a.m.
"The frontline healthcare workers of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions are excited to have reached a tentative agreement with Kaiser Permanente," SEIU-UHW officials said. "We are thankful for the instrumental support of Acting US Labor Secretary Julie Su. A full announcement will follow shortly."
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The agreement still needs to be ratified by a vote of the union's membership.
A three-day strike ended last Saturday morning and included 75,000 members of the SEIU-UHW and aligned unions, including roughly 19,000 Bay Area Kaiser employees. At the time, union officials said they would call for another strike if the two sides couldn't work out a deal on several outstanding items, including staffing levels and pay.
The walkout, which the union says was the nation's largest ever health care strike, impacted hundreds of Kaiser hospitals, clinics and offices in California, Virginia, Colorado, Washington, Oregon and Washington, D.C., and includes licensed vocational nurses, emergency department technicians, radiology technicians, ultrasound sonographers, teleservice representatives and respiratory therapists, among others, but not doctors.