Kaiser’s Workers Accept Proposal to End 50-Day Strike

OAKLAND —  Kaiser Permanente hospital workers voted by better than 2 to 1 Saturday to accept a compromise 3-year contract and end a 50-day strike at 27 hospitals and clinics in Northern California.

The vote count was 2,888 votes to accept and 1,087 to reject the new pact. It contains a two-tier wage scale that was a key issue in the walkout, union officials said.

A representative for Local 250 of the Service Employees International Union, AFL-CIO, said workers would begin to return to their jobs today. Union leaders had recommended that the rank-and-file ratify the pact ironed out Thursday.

The agreement calls for new employees in non-San Francisco Bay area Kaiser facilities to start at 15% less than those in and around San Francisco. Kaiser originally proposed a 30% wage differential for new hires.

Union members earlier this month rejected a proposal that had whittled the two-tier difference down to 20%.

The new contract will give current employees a $1,000 bonus in the first year, an $850 bonus in the second and a 3% wage increase in the third.

Kaiser had sought a 3-year wage freeze with yearly bonuses of $600, $700 and $800 for current employees.

The strikers included housekeepers, ward clerks, nursing assistants, licensed vocational nurses and electro-cardiogram and X-ray technicians.