Local 7600 Activists Get Fired Up for Bargaining at Leadership Conference in California

During their last negotiations in 2021, members of Local 7600 stood strong amidst a potential strike and the challenges of COVID-19 to win a contract that made historic gains to close the wealth gap in Southern California’s Inland Empire. They hope to make similar monumental headway this year with health care giant Kaiser Permanente as their four-year agreement expires on Sept. 30.

In preparation for the bargaining table, a group of local members attended the Alliance of Health Care Unions (AHCU) Leadership Conference on Feb. 21-23 in Los Angeles.

Local 7600 President Michael Barnett said that, with the power of the Alliance, the bargaining committee hopes to build on the wage gains from 2021, especially since inflation has skyrocketed since those negotiations.

“Now we need to deal with wage compression once again,” Barnett told the conference of nearly 400 Alliance members. “We want to be optimistic but ready to take action, because this is an important issue for health care workers everywhere.”

The AHCU is a federation of 22 local unions representing 62,000 Kaiser Permanente employees across the United States. These unions bargain local interests independently while collectively negotiating larger issues at the national table.

Members used the time together to solidify their bargaining priorities, which include benefits, wages, and staffing and patient care. They also sharpened their skills and expanded their minds in workshops focused on storytelling as a leadership practice, the importance of labor as stakeholders, the impacts of AI, active shooter training, and more.

The coalition concluded two days of learning and camaraderie with a solidarity rally outside the conference hotel where they chanted and reminded management that, although they consist of many different unions and job titles, the Alliance moves as one.

Local 7600 has already made great strides in building this unity amongst their more than 8,000 members. AHCU even presented the activists with the Groundwork Award at the conference for everything they’ve done so far to build out their Communication and Action Team (CAT), which keeps members updated about bargaining.

Megan Butler, who serves as the local’s CAT chief, said her hope is that strengthening the team’s infrastructure will strengthen the membership as a whole. She also said the path to building solid communications and engagement within a union is by getting personal.

“It’s important to meet people where they’re at, so talking to them face to face has made a huge impact,” said Butler. “We’re just building from what we’ve already learned from last round and asking them for their input.”

The local bargaining committee meets with management to set ground rules and timelines on March 27. National bargaining with the AHCU begins in May. 

Local 7600 represents nearly 8,000 members at 72 Kaiser Permanente facilities in Southern California. They work as registered nurses, lab and pharmacy technicians, engineers, respiratory care practitioners, licensed dietary aides, environmental service workers, and more.