Kaiser Nurses Ratify Agreement

Aloha, Today is Feb. 14 and this is Patt Gibbs, Executive Director for the HNA. I am very pleased to announce that late last night on February 13, our Kaiser Permanente Hawaii nurses represented by the Hawaii Nurses Association delivered an overwhelming yes vote in favor of the tentative agreement reached by the parties at the end of January. This represents a major achievement for HNA because an important provision in this agreement is a transition into the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, a historic move by the union and by Kaiser here in Hawaii. The coalition has a master agreement that covers all mainland Kaiser facilities.

And I want to applaud this historic moment and to personally thank the following nurse negotiators for their hard work, long hours, perseverance and vision in bringing about this great success. They are Marina Robinson, RN, Terry Carvalho-Luke, RN, Ravada Benjamin, RN, Robin Tanner, and RN. and Jane Hamel, RN.

A special thanks to Walter Allen and Tanya Wallace from the National Coalition and to
HNA Labor Relations Specialist, Rosalynn Perez.

HNA looks forward to sharing in the privileges and obligations of the Labor Management Partnership with Kaiser to improve the quality of healthcare for Kaiser members.
The three-year local agreement is retroactive to December 1, 2008 and expires on November 30, 2011.

Additionally a very very special thanks and a big thank you I should say to our Kaiser nurses who were overwhelmingly supportive of their union during the bargaining and ratification period. I look forward to working with many of you who have stepped up and volunteered to be actively involved in the Labor Management Partnership.

Again this is a historic moment for Kaiser, for Kaiser nurses, and for HNA.