Kaiser, Union in Tentative Settlement

The two sides negotiating a contract for striking employees at Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest and oldest health maintenance organization, reached a tentative agreement Friday, the fifth day of a strike against Kaiser.

Management and union negotiators agreed late Friday to present the latest offer on Monday to the 11,200 striking hospital workers, who have stayed out of work since Monday. If approved, the agreement would end the strike immediately after the vote.

Tom Ramsay, spokesman for Local 399 of the Service Employees International Union, said the walkout will continue in the interim.

Ramsay said the Kaiser offer was being presented “without any recommendation from our union. The offer was only slightly improved, not enough for us to recommend acceptance.”

The vote was scheduled “at the express request” of the national director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Washington, Bernard de Lury, according to both sides.

The original offer, Ramsay said, called for raises of from 5% to 6% in the first year and 3.5% in each of the next two years. He refused to detail the latest offer.

Meanwhile, Kaiser officials in Orange County said Friday that doctors and managers are coping well with the strike.

Although five clinics here have closed, six others, plus the 200-bed hospital in Anaheim, remain open, said Donna Drasner, Kaiser’s county director of public affairs.

She encouraged patients to keep their regular medical appointments: “Physicians and registered nurses are not out on strike. It’s mainly maintenance and clerical workers” as well as licensed vocational nurses.

“We feel that patients are getting the care,” she said.

The Kaiser hospital in Anaheim passed a special inspection Tuesday by the state Health Department’s licensing division, but licensing officials will monitor it closely throughout the strike, said Jacqueline Lincer, Santa Ana district administrator for licensing and certification.

Although 997 Orange County workers are on strike, Drasner said that about 100 employees from Kaiser facilities unaffected by the strike have effectively replaced them.

Kaiser has cut back some services but not emergency services, with managers and workers from non-affected facilities filling in.

Staff writer Lanie Jones contributed to this report from Orange County.