Union holds rally at Kaiser location

The union representing employees at Kaiser Permanente Hawaii staged a rally Wednesday at the Honolulu Clinic, after three years of stalled contract talks.

Unite Here Local 5, representing 1,900 Kaiser employees, said it hasn’t made headway in negotiations with the state’s largest health maintenance organization since resuming bargaining in April.

The rally began in the late afternoon at the Kaiser clinic at 1010 Pensacola St. with about 200 Kaiser and hotel workers marching to City Hall, according to a union spokeswoman.

Kaiser said in a statement that all of its facilities remained open and fully operational. “We are taking steps to minimize the effects of the union’s action and regret any inconvenience it may cause,” the company said.

Kaiser said the Local 5 leadership rejected its last, best and final contract offer, which included a wage increase, earlier this year. Kaiser implemented the 2 percent wage increase despite the breakdown in talks.

“Our employees receive compensation and benefits that are as good or better than competitors in the state,” Kaiser said.

In February the union organized a six-day strike — the first statewide strike for Local 5 Kaiser members since 1986 — following objections to what it called low proposed wage increases and a proposal to eliminate guaranteed pensions for new employees.

The HMO closed 10 of its smaller clinics on Oahu and the neighbor islands during the strike and rescheduled elective procedures and non-urgent appointments while consolidating resources to its larger medical facilities.

The union said Kaiser’s last offer included proposed wage increases of 4 percent over three years. That compares with a 14 percent pay raise for about 18,000 Kaiser nurses in California who went on a two-day strike in November.

The Kaiser employees include licensed practical nurses, medical assistants and housekeepers.