NORTHWEST LABOR PRESS | October 5, 2018 | PAGE 5
UNION ORGANIZING
Photo by Sam Porter, courtesy of OFNHP
Bus drivers unionize at
Columbia County’s CC Rider
...Tense bargaining with Kaiser Permanente ends with
national deal and pledge to work on relationship
From Page 1
favored provider when unions
provide health coverage in the
regions where it operates.
But this year, despite a thriv-
ing financial bottom line,
Kaiser’s top brass demanded
concessions from union work-
ers. In negotiations with the
newly formed Alliance of
Health Care Unions (AHCU),
Kaiser negotiators called for an
end to defined benefit pension
benefits for new hires, saying
that workers of the millennial
generation don’t care about
pensions. So-called “two tier”
proposals like that create divi-
sion and rancor among union
members, because newer em-
ployees will forever remember
that their coworkers sold them
out before they arrived.
“I was so proud. Our mem-
bers said, ‘You’re not doing
that to the people that come af-
ter us,’” said Adrienne Eng-
house, president of Oregon
Federation of Nurses and
Healthcare Professionals
(OFNHP, AFT Local 5017).
OFNHP represents 4,300
Kaiser RNs, dental hygienists,
medical technicians and health
care professionals in Oregon
and Southwest Washington,
and Enghouse serves on the
board of the new alliance and
the national bargaining team
for the AHCU coalition.
Kaiser also wanted to end a
no-cancellation clause (a guar-
antee that you work the hours
you’re scheduled to work, in-
stead of being sent home early.)
Only when Kaiser dropped
those demands at the final hour
did the two sides reach agree-
ment. As the Oct. 1 contract ex-
piration loomed, a final deal
was reached in a 52-hour
marathon of continuous bar-
gaining in which members of
the bargaining team took turns
“I was so proud. Our members said,
‘You’re not doing that to the people that
come after us.’”
— OFNHP president Adrienne Enghouse
leaving to take naps.
The three-year national col-
lective bargaining agreement
provides for wage increases
each Oct. 1. The raises vary by
region: Workers in California,
Washington, and Oregon, will
get raises of 3, 2.75, and 3 per-
cent, plus a lump sum bonus of
0.25 percent on Oct. 1, 2019.
Those in Hawaii, Georgia, and
the Mid-Atlantic will get 2.25,
2, and 2.25 percent. And those
in Colorado will get 2, 1, and 1
percent. The lower raises are in
areas where Kaiser is less prof-
itable because it doesn’t own
its own medical facilities and
must contract with hospitals.
Kaiser’s Colorado operations
in particular have struggled fi-
nancially.
The contract also:
▪ Improves dental benefits, and increases
contributions in year three to Health
Reimbursement Accounts that pay for
employee and retiree copays and
deductibles.
▪ increases the number of “contract
specialists”. The current formula provides
one for every 1,500 members and we
agreed to increase it to one per every
1,200 members.
▪ introduces a new, modest retiree medical
plan for Kaiser members in Washington
that have not had one up to now.
The tentative agreement is
going out to each local union
for ratification. OFNHP held a
mass meeting and voted to ap-
prove it Sept. 30 at the Red
Lion Jantzen Beach.
The national agreement is
supplemented by local agree-
ments. OFNHP’s local agree-
ment also increased longevity
steps and improved language
on minimum staffing levels.
Kaiser still has to bargain
with other local unions, includ-
ing locals of SEIU and OPEIU,
whose contracts expire next
year.
The AHCU was formed in
March by a group of unions
that withdrew from the Coali-
tion of Kaiser Permanente
Unions (CKPU) just a day be-
fore national contract bargain-
ing was to begin. AHCU
unions include locals of AF-
SCME, UFCW, USW, IBT,
KPNAA, IUOE, OFNHP
(AFT), and ILWU. Reasons for
the split were partly personal:
union leaders had trouble
working with the leader of the
largest union, California-based
SEIU-United Healthcare
Workers West. But the split
also reflected differences in ap-
proach: Leaving the CKPU, the
unions that formed AHCU said
it was because they valued the
partnership. In other words, it
was the “play nice” unions that
left; SEIU, the biggest union
that remained, had nearly been
expelled from the partnership
for un-partner-like behavior —
it floated a California health in-
surance tax ballot measure that
would have put Kaiser at a sig-
nificant disadvantage compet-
ing with other insurers.
A group of 22 bus drivers who
transport passengers for Colum-
bia County’s “CC Rider” transit
service is now union-represented.
In a Sept. 27 election super-
vised by the National Labor Re-
lations Board, the drivers voted
13 to 7 to join Amalgamated
Transit Union Local 757. The
drivers are employees of MTR-
Western, a Seattle-headquartered
charter bus and shuttle transport
company. Columbia County
owns the vehicles and the transit
center in St. Helens where trips
originate, but since 2016 has paid
MTRWestern to hire and oversee
drivers.
Low pay is the biggest issue
for drivers, says Local 757
spokesperson Andrew Riley.
Drivers can earn as little as $13
an hour after more than a decade
at CC Rider, Riley said.
CC Rider provides bus service
between the communities of
Clatskanie, Rainier, St. Helens,
Scappoose, and Vernonia, as well
as trips from Columbia County to
downtown Portland, PCC Rock
Creek, and Kelso/Longview,
Washington.