The only thing guaranteed about SEIU’s IT deal is…a weak contract

Kaiser Healthcare ProsApril 26, 2012

Once again, SEIU is trying to fool us into believing their giveaways to Kaiser are actually victories for workers.

SEIU’s latest lie is that they reached a tentative agreement for a contract with no takeaways for IT workers. After weeks of hiding it, SEIU finally disclosed the actual tentative agreement. (With helpful annotations in red from NUHW.)

And here’s the truth: the IT agreement is full of concessions and is just another SEIU sell-out to Kaiser. Here are some facts every Kaiser worker should know about SEIU’s IT deal:

  • Benefits are Up for Grabs: SEIU’s agreement leaves IT workers facing the exact same takeaways that Kaiser is planning for members of SEIU and the Coalition of Kaiser Unions.
  • No guaranteed wage increase: the “5% wage increase” SEIU is talking about is based on merit pay. If your supervisor’s evaluation of you is “not so good” you can get 0%.
  • No wage scales: the SEIU Tentative Agreement says that IT workers must wait until January of 2013 to begin bargaining on wage scales. Even then, the Tentative Agreement allows Kaiser just to ignore the whole process.
  • Low Standby Pay: IT workers will be required to be available for work within 15 minutes on their days off and will only be paid $5 per hour for giving up their free time. IT workers will have the lowest standby pay in Kaiser.
  • No “No Call-Offs”: IT workers who report to work and for whom no work is available will be paid two hours “show up pay” and then sent home. All other Kaiser workers are covered by the “no call-off” policy which guarantees pay for a full shift.

SEIU’s IT deal takes Kaiser workers backwards. And now that SEIU has agreed to these cuts for IT workers, we can expect Kaiser to demand the same concessions from every other SEIU and Coalition union member.

We know a better way. At NUHW, we start by saying “NO” to takeaways and we fight to win the strongest possible contract with every employer. That’s how we won the history-making Kaiser contracts of 2000 and 2005 and how we’ve prevented every cut that Kaiser has proposed.

Won’t you join us, by “Just saying NO” to takeaways at Kaiser Permanente?

Sincerely,

Ralph Cornejo, Kaiser Division Director
National Union of Healthcare Workers 

PS.  Print and share this email by clicking here.