Kaiser nurses Unionized nurses at Kaiser Foundation Hospital voted last night to give Hawaii Nurses Association the authority to issue a 10-day strike notice.
OK strike
By Lyn Danninger
ldanninger@starbulletin.comKaiser spokesman Chris Pablo said the company is disappointed that the nurses have authorized a strike.
"Negotiations have not broken off and are in fact not at impasse. Kaiser has made a very generous offer to its nurses which increases wages and benefits over 29 percent over five years. It also increases differential pay and retiree benefits. The union moved very little on it's initial wage and benefit demands."
While the vote tally was not released, nurses voted "overwhelmingly" to authorize a strike, according to a statement issued by HNA spokesman Scott Foster.
The union is in the process of negotiating new contracts with Kaiser and four other hospitals in Honolulu -- Queen's Medical Center, Kapiolani Medical Center, St. Francis Medical Center and Kuakini Medical Center.
Contracts between the hospitals and the nurses' union expire Nov. 30. Similar votes by nurses at the other hospitals will be taken today and tomorrow.
Negotiations between the union and Kaiser also resume tomorrow, with the hospitals asking for a federal mediator. Kaiser had proposed a five-year contract while the HNA wants to maintain the three-year term now in place with Kaiser and the four other hospitals.
Other issues for Kaiser nurses include medical retiree benefits and safe staffing levels.
There has been some movement on the issue of salary progression, according to Sue Scheider, the director of collective bargaining for HNA. But Scheider said Kaiser's Hawaii nurses would like to get closer to the salary levels paid in its California facilities. Nurses at a Kaiser in Hawaii earn between $28 and $29 an hour, while Kaiser's California nurses recently negotiated a contract that boosted wages to $41 an hour, according to the union.
More than 2,500 nurses at the five Oahu hospitals are represented by the HNA.
