OFNHP AFT Local 5017
November 2021
After months of negotiations, the 52,000 members of the Alliance of Healthcare Unions, which includes the 3,400 Kaiser employees of Oregon and Southwest Washington who are represented by the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP), have reached a tentative agreement. Among the various pieces of the contract, workers pushed back on Kaiser’s “two-tier” wage proposal and won good wage increases, racial justice language, and language to address the staffing crisis.
“The pressure our members, including leaders and community, put on Kaiser and the threat of a strike worked and moved Kaiser leadership to do the right thing and settle a proposal that will improve care for the entire community ,” says Jodi Barschow, a Kaiser Sunnyside RN and President of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, AFT, AFL-CIO (OFNHP Local 5017), the union that represents Kaiser workers in Oregon and Washington. “We look forward to supporting our patients and working with Kaiser to improve care across the country.”
Because of our pressure we defeated Kaiser’s dangerous “two tier” wage proposal, which would have paid incoming frontline healthcare workers much less than their peers. Our victories include higher wages and wage scale improvements, racial justice improvements, and a staffing committee that will begin to tackle the understaffing crisis at Kaiser. Each of our bargaining units have additional language themselves, which will help to improve conditions at Kaiser. This is a step in our continuing fight for safe staffing and healthcare justice by organizing in our worksites and in our communities.