|
Reprinted with permission from Daily
Labor Report, No. 171, pp. C-2 et al. (September 4,
1997).
Copyright 1997 by The Bureau of National Affairs, Inc.,
Washington D.C. (800-372-1033) http://www.bna.com
Labor-Management Cooperation
Kaiser, Unions Begin
Multi-Year Plan To Implement Partnership Agreement
Hailed as one of the
most ambitious efforts ever at labor-management cooperation
when it was announced earlier this year, the partnership
agreement between Kaiser-Permanente and the AFL-CIO
was described Sept. 3 as an ''evolving initiative.''
''We're still at the
starting line; it will take extreme commitment to see
it to the finish line,'' said Richard Barnaby, Kaiser-Permanente
president and chief operating officer, in discussing
the new partnership arrangement at a symposium in Washington,
D.C., organized by the Federal Mediation and Conciliation
Service to mark the agency's 50th anniversary.
Barnaby, one of the
chief architects of the partnership, appeared on a symposium
panel with Peter diCicco, president of the AFL-CIO's
Industrial Union Department, who negotiated the agreement
for the participating member unions. Also on the panel
were Thomas J. Schneider and John R. Stepp of the Washington,
D.C.-based consulting group, Restructuring Associates,
which worked with Kaiser and the AFL-CIO in hammering
out the agreement and now is involved in the implementation
stage.
The partnership, announced
last spring with much fanfare, involves 14 unions representing
some 65,000 Kaiser employees. It affects workers covered
by 46 separate union contracts at hospitals and medical
facilities around the country. Kaiser-Permanente is
the country's largest nonprofit health maintenance organization
with annual revenues of $13 billion (80 DLR A-13, 4/25/97).
The panel outlined
the multi-pronged strategy for implementing the partnership,
which began in June when members of the participating
unions approved the agreement by a 87 percent vote,
and will take until December 1999 before all the components
are in place. Barnaby said he did not expect to see
the partnership fully institutionalized for at least
five years but he and diCicco both expressed their commitment
to working together.
Senior Joint Committee
in Place. At this first stage a joint senior partnership
committee comprised of 11 representatives from labor
and nine from Kaiser has been formed. The intent is
to implement the agreement from the top down, putting
in place a partnership structure at every level of the
workplace.
''We're very much
in a transition period,'' said diCicco, acknowledging
the challenge of trying to meld together on the same
team unions ranging from the most militant to those
who are more accustomed to taking a cooperative approach
with management.
He noted that the
partnership is not intended to replace the collective
bargaining process. Nor as yet has it ameliorated the
usual tensions in that process. Currently, there is
a strike under way by one of the participating unions
against Kaiser facilities in Washington and Oregon (170
DLR A-3, 9/3/97).
Labor, Management's
Shared Purpose. Barnaby outlined the shared purpose
of the partnership between the HMO and its unions. This
is to:
- improve
the quality of care delivered to Kaiser members
- produce
market-leading competitive performance
- make Kaiser-Permanente
a better place to work
- provide
maximum possible employment and job security for employees
- expand the
HMO's membership
- involve
employees and their unions in this process
Kaiser hopes to gain
from the partnership a more collaborative relationship
as it works to improve its quality of care, Barnaby
said. It also hopes to strengthen its influence in the
health care industry and in the legislative process
affecting the industry. It sees the partnership as a
way of expanding into new markets.
For labor, the partnership
offers a place at the decision-making table, a commitment
of neutrality from the HMO as unions work to increase
their membership, and an opportunity to provide more
jobs for members, diCicco said. The agreement explicitly
states that ''there will be no loss of employment to
any employee because of partnership programs at the
work site.'' This means that no employee is going to
lose his or her job for suggesting productivity improvements
that might lead to the elimination of their position,
diCicco said.
''I hope we're creating
a model for the industry,'' he said.
By Elizabeth Walpole-Hofmeiste
Reprinted with permission
from Daily Labor Report, No. 171, pp. C-2 et al. (September
4, 1997). Copyright 1997 by The Bureau of National Affairs,
Inc., Washington D.C. (800-372-1033) http://www.bna.com
9-4-97 COPYRIGHT ©
1997 BY THE BUREAU OF NATIONAL AFFAIRS, INC., WASHINGTON,
D.C. DLR 0418-2693/97/$0+$1.00
Top
|
