Kaiser, Striking Union Reach Tentative Agreement

The two sides negotiating a pact for striking employees at Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest and oldest health maintenance organization, agreed late Friday to present a proposed contract to striking workers on Monday, possibly ending a five-day old walkout against Kaiser.

Management and union negotiators agreed to present the latest offer to the 11,200 striking hospital workers, who have stayed out of work since last Monday. If approved, the agreement would end the strike immediately after the vote.

Tom Ramsay, spokesman for Local 399 of the Service Employees International Union, said the walkout will continue in the interim.

Ramsay said the Kaiser offer was being presented “without any recommendation from our union. The offer was only slightly improved, not enough for us to recommend acceptance.”

The vote was initiated “at the express request” of the national director of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in Washington, Bernard de Lury, according to both sides.

The original offer, Ramsay said, called for raises of from 5% to 6% in the first year and 3.5% in each of the next two years. He refused to give any details of the latest offer.