The Labor Management Partnership at Kaiser Permanente
History: The Labor Management Partnership was formed in 1997 after years of labor turmoil within Kaiser Permanente and competitive pressures within the health care industry. In 1995, twenty-six local unions representing Kaiser Permanente workers formed the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions to better coordinate bargaining strategy. In 1997, Kaiser Permanente and the Union Coalition created the LMP as a way to transform the relationship and the organization. Today the LMP covers 82,000 employees nationwide.
Theory: The Labor Management Partnership is based on the simple idea that the people who do the work every day understand the challenges and problems, and can come up with solutions that might not occur to those who are not as close to the work, day to day.
Practice: On a day-to-day basis, it means that workers, managers, physicians and dentists use joint decision making and a problem-solving process based on common interests.
The strategy has led to measurable results:
• Enhancing operations and service, and improving patient satisfaction scores in many departments;
• Improving employee job satisfaction scores and reducing staff turnover;
• Reducing workplace injuries by 20 percent or more in many departments and regions; and
• Achieving hundreds of millions of dollars in cost savings across Kaiser Permanente, while improving quality of care and quality of service.
Agreements and Tools: The LMP provided the framework for the landmark Employment and Income Security Agreement in 1999, which is designed to fully engage employees in improving processes and technologies, without fearing the loss of their own or coworkers’ jobs. To this end, the Agreement assures that displaced employees will be retrained into jobs with equal or better wages, hours and working conditions.
Some of the LMP tools and training that support change within Kaiser Permanente include:
• Consensus Decision Making: a method for engaging all parties in reaching more effective decisions
• Interest-Based Problem Solving and Issue Resolution: non-adversarial processes for resolving workplace problems and disputes
• Systems of Safety: a structured way for employees to identify and correct potential job hazards in their department.
Community benefits: Because of the LMP and other “high road” strategies, Kaiser Permanente has emerged as a highly regarded example of corporate responsibility. In 2004, for example, Kaiser Permanente’s community benefit program, which involves union members, expended $825 million to meet community health care needs and increase access to health care. Kaiser Permanente’s unique dues subsidy programs extended full membership in Kaiser Permanente to more than 40,000 uninsured children and adults. Kaiser Permanente collaborated with its unions in California to enact a state safe needle measure that became a national standard, and legislation mandating staffing ratios for nurses and patients that underscores improved patient care. In addition, Kaiser Permanente has emerged as a leader in the drive to expand access to health care among the 45 million uninsured in the United States.
A model of mutual respect: Many prominent analysts consider the Labor Management Partnership a model. “Kaiser Permanente is one of the only organizations I know of that is trying to build a genuine partnership between its unions and management.” says Professor Jeffrey Pfeffer of Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. “(Kaiser Permanente) and its unions are attempting to build an innovative model of management—a relationship of mutual respect.”
For more information, visit
www.lmpartnership.org