Kaiser Market wage increases ratified!

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MARKET WAGE INCREASES RATIFIED!

KP ProTech/Optical and Pharmacy union members turned out yesterday in record numbers to say YES to increased wages!

After several months of union members pushing back against wage disparities through petitions, a demand letter, hundreds of postcards and using our collective voice, KP agreed to increase wages for UFCW Members.

Wage increases will be effective the beginning of the next full pay period.

Implementation of the wage increases will be in 90-120 days.

KP ProTech/Optical and Pharmacy members should see retro pay within two pay periods following the implementation date.

Congratulations!

St. Joseph Medical Center - VOTE SCHEDULED - Tentative Agreement Reached

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St. Joseph Medical Center - VOTE SCHEDULED
Tentative Agreement Reached

On Wednesday, December 7, after multiple long days of bargaining we were able to come to a tentative agreement. Because of our unity and actions, we were able to get some great wins including:

  • A three-year contract with competitive wage increases that overall average 10.35% in year one for staff pharmacists

  • New wage scale that eliminates ghost steps

  • $2000 ratification bonus prorated by FTE for all pharmacists

  • Preceptor pay of $1.00/hour starting the first pay period 120 days after ratification

  • Health and safety language

  • And other great wins!

The vote will be in-person and members will have the opportunity to speak to Bargaining Team members before casting their ballot. Please arrive during the posted vote times as we cannot allow members to enter the vote room outside of the advertised times:

Tuesday, December 20
7am-9:30am | 11am-1pm | 3pm-5pm | 6pm-8pm
Lagerquist C (ground level of the hospital)

St. Joseph Medical Center - Bargaining Continues

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"After much input from our bargaining unit survey, we had meaningful conversations with Management that made headway on our collective concerns."

-Beau Chiba, SJMC Pharmacy

We met with St. Joseph Medical Center Management for our second bargaining session on August 24. While still early in this process, we were able to discuss improvements to language in your contract around discipline, grievances, workloads, and more. We look forward to future bargaining sessions, transitioning towards our economic discussions, and will meet next on Wednesday, August 31.

Join us via ZOOM for the Contract Action Team (CAT) meetings!

Thursday, September 1
7pm

Friday, September 2
1pm

Contact a Bargaining Team member or your Union Rep for meeting details. Details will also be emailed to you.

Kaiser Pharmacy Spokane update on new contract language & premiums

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Kaiser Pharmacy Spokane update on new contract language & premiums

Our Negotiation Team has been working with Kaiser both locally and nationally to ensure that our contract agreements are implemented fairly and paid out accurately.

Because Kaiser’s payroll system is run nationally, we are working with the National Alliance of Health Care Unions to help ensure that all changes to payroll codes are implemented as soon as possible.

We are in discussion with Kaiser Washington to push them towards a manual fix - Kaiser’s payment codes are not yet programmed into the payroll system. Management needs to manually keep track of what you are owed to ensure members are compensated quickly and accurately! This is a work-in-progress and we will keep you updated as we push Kaiser toward a solution.

Don’t miss out on important updates! Make sure you and your coworkers’ information is correct and up-to-date!

ufcw21.org/update-your-information

For further information about our contract or to get involved, please contact our Union Representative Lenaya Wilhelm @ 509-340-7369

Kaiser Pharmacy - Tentative Agreement Reach on Local & National Bargains!

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Tentative Agreement Reached on local & national bargains!

Our Bargaining Team has reached a tentative agreement with Kaiser on a new local collective bargaining agreement for Pharmacy and a National Agreement through the Alliance of Health Care Unions. We are very excited to tell you that these agreements include the following: 

  • COMPETITIVE WAGE INCREASES each year of the agreement and continued bonuses through the Performance Sharing Program
    3% 2021; 3% 2022; 2% + 2% bonus 2023; 2% + 2% bonus 2024

  • INCLUDES FULL RETRO PAY BACK TO October 1, 2021

  • Increase Retiree Medical from $350 per year of service to $1,000 per year of service

  • Improvements to Access for Education with escalation of benefits

  • Secured Sound Retirement Pension and increased funding

  • And so much more!

Full details of the contract offers will be available during online vote on Wednesday, December 8 from 6AM to 8PM. You will recieve an email from UFCW 21 via “SimplyVoting” with your unique login information.

TO VOTE ONLINE MAKE SURE YOUR INFORMATION IS UP TO DATE!

In order to vote on both proposals, everyone needs to make sure their personal email is up to date in our records. If you did not receive this announcement via email, please visit ufcw21.org/update-your-information and update your information. If you do not receive an email to vote on December 8, please reach out to Union Representative Rhonda Fisher-Ivie at rfisherivie@ufcw21.org or 206-436-6584 no later than 5PM on the day of the vote to provide an updated email address.

UFCW21 Kaiser Update - TENTATIVE AGREEMENT REACHED!

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After months of local and national bargaining, Informational Picketing and Leaflets, and negotiating last week through the night - UFCW21 and all Union Members in the Alliance of Health Care Unions reached a Tentative Agreement on all contracts!

In Local negotiations for both Pro Tech Optical and Pharmacy, our Bargaining Team won additional improvements in premiums and staffing and contractual language, with NO TAKEAWAYS. We secured improvements for Optical and Pharmacy’s Sound Health Retirement Pension- with a guarantee to increase contribution rates to a percentage of salary during the life of the contract. Other highlights include increasing Retiree Medical for all KPWA UFCW21 members from $350 to $1000 for every year of service and Strong Across the Board Wage increases and bonuses each year of the contract. We will continue partnering with SEIU and OPEIU to advocate for improvements to our healthcare in KPWA.

Additionally, the newly organized Spokane Pharmacy Techs won a historic contract including the Western Washington wage scale, maintaining their current retirement, new premiums and benefits, and an accretion allowing them to unite in strength and solidarity with hundreds of UFCW21 Pharmacy members in Western Washington.

In the next couple of days, UFCW21 will send out a vote notice to all members with dates and times of votes in December.

Please update your contact information- so that you receive all notices and can participate in meetings and the Online Vote in Western Washington. Spokane Pharmacy Techs will have an in-person Vote Meeting in Spokane. Go to: ufcw21.org/update-your-information

Read the full bargaining update from Alliance at: ufcw21.org/s/alliance-update-we-did-it.pdf

Kaiser Spokane Pharmacy Techs Spokane Wages pushed to National Table

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Kaiser Spokane Pharmacy Techs

Spokane Wages pushed to National Table

“We are not backing down- it’s unacceptable for Kaiser to expect us to be the only Union employees in Spokane to have inferior wages to Western Washington. Join us in solidarity and wear our Yellow and Blue Ribbons every Tuesday until we reach a fair contract!”
 - Bargaining Team: Jackie McFarlen & Tiffany Yeates

After months of bargaining, we were not able to reach final agreement locally on a wage scale and retirement for Spokane Pharmacy Techs. UFCW21 and all Unions within the Alliance of Health Care Unions are UNITED that there should be ONE wage scale for each Region at Kaiser. In Washington- this has always been true- OPEIU 8 and SEIU1199 members in Spokane are on the same wage scale as their coworkers in Western Washington. Spokane Pharmacy Techs deserve the same respect and equity- especially when so many of us have given our careers to Group Health and Kaiser. National Benefits has not yet agreed to let us maintain our current Retirement plan. Both issues have been pushed to the National Table and the Alliance, with 55,000 members, has said there is no National Deal until Spokane issues are settled.

All UFCW 21 contracts are now at the National Table- Pro Tech Optical, Pharmacy, and Spokane Pharmacy Techs- pushing together for benefit improvements to make us comparable to other Regions.

We are united for:

  • Improved Medical Costs like the Northwest Region

  • Increase Retiree Medical for years of service (WA $350/yr of service, other Regions up to $2500/yr of service)

  • Local Market Adjustments

  • Education Benefits

  • One Wage Scale for Region

Kaiser is pushing everywhere in the country for a Two Tiered Wage Scale and has proposed 1% Across the Board Increases. With little progress- we are moving forward with Action for September and October. We’re ready to fight for our patients and all health care workers.

TAKE ACTION TO WIN A GREAT NATIONAL AND SPOKANE CONTRACT

UNION SOLIDARITY TUESDAYS

Every Tuesday, Union members are wearing union colors until we win a fair contract. In Spokane- our stewards have made Yellow and Blue ribbons for all Techs. They will take them to all Clinics- please wear them every Tuesday in Solidarity! Take a photo wearing them together and post it on social media with the hashtag #BestJobsBestCare. Remember to tag KP @KPThrive and @UFCW21

SIGN THE PETITION

Tell KP to invest in patient care and health care workers. Sign and share the petition. Share it co-workers and friends on social media. tinyurl.com/kaiser-petition

LOCAL ACTIONS

Join the Contract Action Team meeting Wednesday, September 22 at 6:00pm via zoom! Zoom links available in the email update or contact your Rep!

Kaiser Spokane Pharmacy Techs - Union Update • February 23

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We Pharmacy Techs know there are a lot of questions on the future of our union representation in Spokane and having a Union contract that addresses the issues that are important to us. 

An NLRB Election to determine if we would like to be represented by UFCW 21 will take place by mail over a four-week period. UFCW 21 has disclaimed the Pharmacists and currently the Pharmacy Techs are still represented. Only Pharmacy Techs in Spokane are eligible to vote. Ballots will go out by mail on March 8  and must be returned to the NLRB Regional Office by no later than April 5, 2021. The ballots will be counted and election results determined on April 7. 

Before the decertification petition was filed with the NLRB, bargaining was scheduled for February 23. Because the Pharmacists are no longer represented, we returned to bargaining as the Pharmacy Tech Unit. 

Our union bargaining team members are Tiffany Yeates and Jackie McFarlen, and Tiana Tupou is the alternate and helping lead the contract action team. 

Why are we bargaining while there is a pending NLRB Election? 

The NLRB Election on April 7 will determine whether we continue bargaining and are represented by UFCW 21. We currently have bargaining dates scheduled for April 1, 15, and 29. We are committed to sticking together and negotiating a strong contract for ourselves and our coworkers. Being at the bargaining table allows us to be informed directly from UFCW 21, the Alliance of Health Care Unions, and management- and have a voice in addressing and prioritizing the issues of Pharmacy Techs. 

Will we receive our merit pay increases and Rewards Bonus next month?

Yes. In bargaining, we discussed scheduled merit increases and the Reward for Results bonuses. The Alliance of Health Care Unions has negotiated nationally that due to Covid-19, all union represented employees will receive 100% of the bonus regardless of whether the Regions have met all their goals. The Alliance fought hard to make sure that the annual bonuses were paid at the maximum to all Kaiser workers, regardless of Union representation. 

This means that we will receive 100% of our Rewards bonus and it will be on our paycheck March 5. Over the next week and a half, Jim and Melanie will meet with us to let us know our individual bonus amount. We also secured that we will receive our merit increases as normal on April 2. If you have any questions about your individual bonus or increase, please reach out to our Union Representative Maureen Hatton, 509-340-7370. 

Bargaining Update

We focused bargaining yesterday on outlining the issues that are most important to us in Spokane:

  • Maintaining our current Retirement Plan 

  • Securing our current Kaiser Healthcare Plan for the Future

  • Winning the wage scale in Western Washington for Pharmacy Techs in Spokane! UFCW 21 members in cities such as Olympia, Puyallup, Everett, Seattle, and Silverdale, all are on the same wage scale.

  • Wages and premiums that allow us to recruit and retain Pharmacy Techs- including on-call, weekend, evenings, Optfill, IV Tech, Lead, and Float premiums

  • Staffing and float coverage for covering vacations, sick time, and FMLA. We discussed creative solutions that included temporary part-time employees, more floats, and healthcare apprenticeship programs for Pharmacy Techs. 

  • Rebalancing and ways that this process can be improved in the future

For questions or for more information, please contact Union Representative Maureen Hatton, 509-340-7370.