Publications

UNAC/UHCP Victories in California

In two back-to-back victories, the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/ UHCP) has proven that there is power in numbers and that nurses know being in a union gives them the strongest voice possible.


Nurses from Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California facilities celebrate the announcement that they are now UNAC/UHCP members.

Nearly 800 nurses, including certified nurse midwives, case managers, nurse educators and others from all of Kaiser Permanente’s Southern California facilities joined UNAC/UHCP by majority sign-up. The nurses signed union authorization cards that were then checked by a neutral third party.

Card check recognition is a major provision of the Employee Free Choice Act, one of organized labor’s top priorities. EFCA passed the U.S. House of Representatives in March. The bill now awaits a vote in the Senate.

Kathy Sackman, RN, UNAC/UHCP president and AFSCME International vice president acknowledged Kaiser Permanente’s neutral stance: “Kaiser Permanente proves that respecting workers’ desire to have a voice on the job, rather than fighting the unions, is not only the right thing to do, it also makes good business sense.”

In a second win for the union, more than 1,400 UNAC/UHCP members at four Tenet facilities ratified a new master agreement by an overwhelming majority. In addition to other economic improvements, the three-year contract includes a wage increase of 5.25 percent the first year, 5 percent in the second and 5 percent in the third. Significantly, the contract contains protective Kentucky River language, prohibiting Tenet from using the NLRB’s recent decision to strip nurses of their collective bargaining rights. This contract language is similar to wording UNAC/UHCP won, statewide, from Kaiser Permanente last fall ( UNA Action, Winter 2006).

Print Version