Members of Local 7600 have reached a tentative agreement with their health care employer Kaiser Permanente this past weekend, just weeks after they voted overwhelmingly to authorize the union to call a strike while bargaining stalled.
“The past 20 months of the pandemic have been tough, and we made deep, personal sacrifices so we could keep helping our patients and our communities,” said USW Local 7600 President Micheal Barnett. “We’ve more than earned a fair contract that reflects our contributions to Kaiser Permanente’s continuing success.”
Barnett said that the proposed contract represents important progress in narrowing the wage gap between Kaiser’s Inland Empire workforce and other area workers doing the same jobs, as well as beating back a proposed two-tier wage scale and making significant gains on staffing, racial justice, and more.
The next step is for the Delegates Conference to review and approve the agreement. Local leadership will then conduct membership information meetings and arrange ratification votes.
USW Local 7600 represents workers at 72 Kaiser Permanente locations in Southern California in a wide range of job classes, from respiratory care practitioners to surgical technicians, engineers, pharmacy technicians and assistants, licensed vocational nurses, dietary aides, environmental service workers, medical assistants, appointment clerks, phlebotomists, and more.