Two-Tier Wage Plan Is Sticking Point in Kaiser Strike

Jeanette Cortes, a registered nurse in charge at night of the pediatrics clinic at the 329-bed Kaiser medical center here, marched in sympathy Wednesday with about 300 striking hospital workers. She was livid.

“With a two-tier wage system, why would Kaiser want to keep me?” she said. “In the long run, they’ll get rid of us and promote the cheaper, new workers. We’re too expensive.”

Cortes, like thousands of other registered nurses of the California Nurses Assn. in Northern California, refused to cross picket lines set up by more than 9,000 Kaiser Permanente workers in the third day of their strike against the nation’s largest health maintenance organization. Kaiser serves 2 million enrollees--one of every four people--in Northern California.

Two-Tier Wage Plan

At the heart of the labor dispute is Kaiser’s demand for a two-tier wage structure at many of its 27 Northern California medical facilities. That proposal, along with a three-year wage freeze and bonuses through 1988 totaling $2,100, was rejected over the weekend by a 4-to-1 margin by members of Local 250 of the Service Employees International Union.

The union has charged that Kaiser is financially sound, demonstrated by its recent spending for renovations and new medical facilities, and that its contract offer of a wage freeze and the two-tier pay structure has no economic justification.

On Wednesday, Kaiser filed a formal complaint with the National Labor Relations Board charging that the California Nurses Assn. had broken its no-strike contract clause with Kaiser. The association, which represents about 5,500 registered nurses working in Kaiser’s Northern California medical facilities, denies that it has called a strike.

“We’re not on a strike,” said Jessie Bostelle, a nurses association spokeswoman. Under the terms of their Kaiser contract, she said, individual nurses are free to honor picket lines if they choose to.

Effectiveness Disputed

The nurses union claims that 75% of its members are refusing to cross picket lines, up from 55% on Monday. Kaiser officials, however, said that most of the nurses are reporting for work.

Cortes said she and many fellow registered nurses fear that if Kaiser can successfully impose the two-tier wage structure on Local 250 workers, the nurses will face the same terms when their contract with Kaiser expires in December, 1987.

Under the two-tier system proposed by Kaiser, new workers at eight facilities outside of the Bay Area would start at a 30% lower scale than current employees. The proposal would also establish two, lower entry-level wage rates for new hires within the Bay Area.

Local 250 members on strike include housekeeping and nursing aides, licensed vocational nurses, admitting clerks and electrocardiogram and X-ray technicians. They earn $9 to $14 an hour. Kaiser officials say their wage rates outside the Bay Area average 25% higher than their competitors.

The strike comes at an inopportune time for Kaiser, said Randall S. Huyser, a health care analyst with Montgomery Securities in San Francisco. “December is a big open enrollment period for employers,” he said. “Kaiser could very well see many of its members shift to competing plans.”

Indeed, Local 250 officials say they have targeted 55 of Northern California’s largest employers who use the Kaiser plan for a mail message asking them to choose another health plan unless Kaiser agrees to a settlement. Union officials said 77 other unions also have been asked to press Kaiser for a settlement.

On Wednesday, the union began advertising on radio stations in San Francisco, Sacramento and San Jose, encouraging Kaiser members to go to their hospitals for treatment. “It’s a reverse boycott,” said Local 250 spokesman Jeff Schrader. “Our message is don’t take no for an answer. Demand health care, and if Kaiser declines, insist on a referral.”

Kaiser spokesman Dan Danzig said the company’s medical centers were operating at about 50% to 75% of normal patient levels on Wednesday. “We continue to honor our commitments,” he said, adding that he was not concerned about seeing a larger patient demand in the near future.

“Everyone’s looking to try and penetrate Kaiser’s marketplace,” said Dave Kornblum, health care analyst with Laventhol and Horwath, a San Francisco business consulting firm. “It’s quite important for them to expand and cut labor costs to remain competitive.”

The strike does not affect Kaiser’s nine medical centers in Southern California, where the plan serves 1.8 million members.