Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Kaiser Health Care Professionals Ratify New Contracts, Winning Vital Patient Safety Protections

Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

Health care professionals, members of United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP, AFSCME), voted to ratify new contracts with Kaiser Permanente, winning critical protections that will directly improve patient care.

Approved by an overwhelming majority, the contracts are effective upon ratification and will expire on Sept. 30, 2029.

“This agreement reflects everything our members stood up and stood together for: safe staffing, improved access, and respect for the professionals who provide critical care every day,” said UNAC/UHCP President Charmaine Morales, RN. “This fight was always about our patients and the public good, and we’ve made meaningful progress to ensure caregivers have the time and resources necessary to deliver safe, high-quality care.”

When caregivers have a voice, patients are better off. Because of UNAC/UHCP, Kaiser patients will benefit from more time, better access, stronger communication and higher quality care.

The union also won the largest wage increases UNAC/UHCP has ever achieved. Many of the gains—such as enforcement of safe RN staffing ratios already in the contract—come after years of work on prior contracts and between contracts, including job actions, staffing objection forms, petitions and informational pickets

“This is an important step forward, but the work doesn’t stop here,” said Peter Sidhu, RN, executive vice president of UNAC/UHCP. “We’ll be vigilant—documenting ratio violations, escalating unsafe staffing gaps, and using every tool our new contracts provide to protect our patients.”