Kaiser Permanente, pharmacists reach agreement
The deal averts a strike that would have affected patients’ prescriptions
With an eleventh-hour deal struck between Kaiser Permanente and thousands of its pharmacists, the California health care giant averted a planned strike that sent patients rushing to refill prescriptions in anticipation of widespread pharmacy shutdowns.
The agreement, reached at 1 a.m. Nov. 15 after a 12hour negotiating session, came just hours before 2,100 Kaiser pharmacists planned to stop working. It marked the latest pact in a weekend of last-minute negotiations and deal-making that saw Kaiser reach a tentative agreement with 22 health care workers’ unions for a four-year contract covering about 50,000 employees.
The health care giant’s tentative deal with Northern California’s Guild for Professional Pharmacists encompasses a three-year contract that includes wage increases every year, no reductions to health coverage, “higher incentive bonus opportunities” and “generous” retirement benefits, as well as “agreement on important operational matters,” according to a Kaiser statement.
The final push to a deal was “grueling,” the pharmacists’ union said in a statement, but was reached in an effort to provide Kaiser patients with uninterrupted care.
“The Guild appreciates all the support from our membership, employees from other Unions, the general public and non-represented Kaiser pharmacists during this arduous experience,” the Guild for Professional Pharmacists’ statement said.
“The tentative agreement reflects our respect for Kaiser Permanente pharmacy professionals and the exceptional care they provide and provides industry-leading wage and benefit packages,” read the statement from Kaiser, which provides care to about 12.5 million people nationwide, including about 4.5 million in Northern California.
The specter of a weeklong strike prompted many patients to rush to pharmacies across the Bay Area over the weekend to refill their prescriptions. Among them was Eva Chrysanthe, 53, who said she waited with 30 to 40 people in line at a Kaiser pharmacy in San Francisco on Nov. 13.
“It was pretty crowded,” she said. “A lot of people in line. And a lot of people sitting, from the window to the entrance.”
A former medical technician at UCSF, Chrysanthe voiced support for the pharmacists and lauded their “incredibly demanding work.”
“I think everyone knows that those front-line workers have borne the brunt of a lot of the pandemic,” she said.
Even as negotiators praised the tentative agreements, the potential for further labor unrest this week looms. Two unions remain in negotiations for new contracts, including Local 39 Operating Engineers, which represents about 700 Kaiser workers in Northern California and has been on strike since September.
As of Nov. 15, tens of thousands of health care workers were still forging ahead with plans for sympathy strikes Nov. 18-19 that could cause work disruptions at clinics and hospitals across Northern California.
At 7 a.m. Nov. 18, about 36,000 workers with the Service Employees International Union-united Healthcare Workers West will strike for 24 hours at Kaiser locations across Northern California. Their members include optometrists, X-ray technicians, surgical technicians, housekeepers and medical assistants.
The following day, 20,000 members of the California Nurses Association also plan to go on strike for 24 hours, beginning at 7 a.m., in solidarity with the engineers union. They will be joined by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents 2,000 Kaiser mental health professionals who have also not yet reached a labor agreement.