The Labor Management Partnership is set to grow by some 300 members, with two recent additions to its membership in Southern California.

Nearly 50 administrative workers at Kaiser Permanente facilities in Southern California’s Kern County recently became members of UFCW Local 770 and ratified their first contract in late November, while some 250 nurses at Kaiser Permanente’s Moreno Valley Community Hospital have just joined the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, a first step to signing on to the 2005 National Agreement.

With the ratification of their local contract, the Kern County employees—who work in the disability, claims, billing, scheduling, payroll and other departments—will now enjoy the benefits of the 2005 National Agreement and the Labor Management Partnership.

“We worked very hard on the contract, and I’m very proud of it,” said Destiny Williams-Rojas, a member of the bargaining team.

No longer on the sidelines

As an administrative specialist, Williams-Rojas has sometimes taken minutes at unit-based team and Labor Management Partnership meetings.

Now, as a union member, “I’ll be able to be part of that,” she says. “I will be able to participate and reap the benefits.”

Meanwhile, the Moreno Valley nurses’ union, the Service Employees International Union, Local 121, was unanimously voted into the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions at the Oct. 29 meeting of the Union Steering Committee, one of the Coalition’s highest governing bodies, which sets the stage for signing onto the LMP’s national collective bargaining agreement.

Sue Weinstein, executive director of Local 121, said the Partnership offers the union’s nurses a unique opportunity to work in high-performing teams that engage physicians, managers and frontline workers alike.

‘Nurses are thrilled’

“The nurses are thrilled,” she said. “The nurses are feeling like they are part of something bigger and better.”

Walter Allen, Southern California regional LMP co-chair and executive director of OPEIU Local 30, said there was no question about granting the local’s request to join the Coalition.

“Everybody should be in,” he said. “With everybody in, our coalition—and our partnership—is stronger."

Allen said the Labor Management Partnership continues to be a model for how labor and management can and should work together.

"I’ve never seen anything else work as well,” he said. “Nothing to date has been as effective.”

Positive changes in patient care

Kaiser Permanente purchased the 101-bed Moreno Valley Community Hospital, which serves members in Southern California’s Riverside County, in 2008.

Weinstein said Kaiser Permanente has brought needed changes toward good patient care to Moreno Valley. Right away, KP recognized that staff shortages were affecting patient care and made a commitment to hire more RNs, she said.

“There’s been a difference in the attitudes, in the way nurses are talked to,” she said. “Our nurses feel proud to say they are Kaiser nurses.”

For more information on SEIU Local 121, which represents 8,000 registered nurses and professionals at 17 hospitals in Los Angeles and surrounding counties, please visit http://www.seiu121rn.org.