SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — After 196 days on the picket line, Kaiser Permanente's mental health workers have voted to ratify a new four-year contract with the healthcare giant.
The four-year contract is retroactive to Sept. 2024 and will expire in 2028. It includes gains that should improve the experience of receiving and delivering behavioral health care at Kaiser.
The breakthrough comes after one of the longest healthcare worker strikes in recent California history.
Nearly 2,400 union members voted Thursday, with at least 1,799 agreeing to ratify the contract.
The new 4-year contract includes:
- Five guaranteed hours per week for full-time therapists to perform critical patient care duties such as responding to patient calls and emails, making appointment notes, devising treatment plans, and communicating with social service agencies.
- 20 percent raises over four years and a $2,500 ratification bonus.
- A new Cash Balance Pension Plan [dol.gov] that guarantees retirement income, unlike a 401(k), and shifts the financial risk of a market downturn onto the employer instead of the employee.
Under the contract, workers will also get the following annual raises
- 5.5 percent upon ratification
- 5.5 percent in October 2025
- 5 percent in October 2026
- 4 percent in October 2027
Workers who speak a second language will get an additional $1.50 per hour – a 50-cent per hour increase over the previous contract.
Despite the agreement, the transition back to work hasn't been smooth for all employees.
Jim Clifford, a therapist with 24 years of service at Kaiser, experienced an unexpected setback when attempting to return to his position on Monday.
"Yes, we're all looking forward to getting back to work and seeing our patients," Clifford said. "We've all been told across Southern California that they're suddenly not ready for us to come back to work, so we're insisting that we need to be paid our full pay this week because we're ready to work."
The union isn't stopping with this contract. They said they're also pressing lawmakers to pass legislation at the state level that would ensure better pay for clinicians and improved patient reimbursement.
"We've sponsored two particular bills, one in the assembly, by Doctor Baines, that is for Kaiser patients," Rosselli said. "It provides an expedited system for patients to get reimbursed for care that they have, but they have to get outside of Kaiser because Kaiser denied the care. The second bill is for parity for clinicians for compensation. It's offered by Senator Scott Weiner in the Senate and it provides a process, where Kaiser and other providers have to give the legislature information about how it establishes compensation for mental health professionals versus medical care technicians."
Union representatives were at the Capitol on Tuesday for a hearing to continue advocating for changes to the workplace environment.
NUWH said Kaiser was invited to be a member of this panel on Tuesday and declined the invitation.
