USC Bargaining

Keck Hospital bargaining update (June 10, 2021)

Published Thursday, June 10, 2021

We met today with all three bargaining units together — Keck /Norris, Ambulatory Clinics, and the Call Center. Together our combined committees represent over 1500 NUHW members. We concluded our negotiations today on a high note!

The company has made a major concession and finally agreed after years of fighting – to extend the Free Family HMO to more than 300 of our members in the ambulatory clinics and the call center. This was a major priority of our membership as reflected in the bargaining surveys (benefit parity). While we take this as a positive step forward, we understand that without our strike vote authorization this would not have been possible.

The Employer also changed their proposals and agreed to our proposal of status quo language on multiple clinic articles:

Article#:12 – Floating

Article#:23 – Union Security

Article#:24 – Work Stoppage

Article#:27 – Entire Agreement

And at the Call Center the company finally agreed to our positions on the following articles:

  • Recognition, agreeing to include Leads in the union
  • Union Representation
  • Discipline, with a 12 month sunset of disciplines and just cause protections
  • A three year contract, keeping us aligned with our sisters and brothers in the hospitals and clinics
  • Education Benefits

The committee has made it clear to the company that we expect a comprehensive economic and time off proposal (including Norris Holidays) on Tuesday. We have made significant progress but there are still major items to resolve.

We will reconvene on Tuesday, June 15th, with all three committees together and united to advance our bargaining goals.

Lucy Lamont, Administrative Assistant, Orthopedic Clinic
NUHW Steward and Bargaining Committee