Labor Management Partnership

What is LMP?

The Labor Management Partnership (LMP) was formed in 1997 by Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions as a way of creating an operating strategy for a high performance organization. This strategy would be identified by union, management and physician leaders alike. Each employee is an expert in her or his job, therefore the key to high performance is to fully engage union members and leaders in identifying and solving problems, creating business plans, and redesigning work processes.

Making the transition to LMP means fundamentally changing the way we work, by giving the people who do the work a real voice in how it gets done. LMP goes far beyond labor-management committees or labor-management cooperation. At Kaiser Permanente, unions and union members are included in all stages of decision making. What’s more, many frontline managers say joint decision making leads to better determinations, less stress for them and improved morale in their departments.

Work groups that have established a strong partnership with shared decision-making, are delivering impressive results:

• Reducing workplace injuries by more than 20 percent
• Raising patient satisfaction scores
• Reducing cost structure
• Accelerating service
• Reducing costly staff turnover
• Improving job satisfaction
• Designing more efficient operations and facilities
• Improving performance on a wide range of service and financial indicators

Goals of the Labor Management Partnership

The goal the 1997 LMP agreement is to demonstrate that partnership produces "superior health care outcomes, market leading competitive performance, and a superior workplace for Kaiser Permanente employees." The LMP has these additional goals:

• Improve quality health care for Kaiser Permanente members and the communities we serve
• Assist Kaiser Permanente in achieving and maintaining market leading competitive performance
• Make Kaiser Permanente a better place to work
• Expand Kaiser Permanente's membership in current and new markets, including designation as a provider of choice for all labor organizations in the areas we serve
• Provide Kaiser Permanente employees with the maximum possible employment and income security within Kaiser Permanente and/or the health care field;
• Involve employees and their unions in decisions
• Consult on public policy issues and jointly advocate when possible and appropriate.

Leader Focus

The Labor Management Partnership provided the framework for negotiating the sweeping 2005 National Agreement between Kaiser Permanente and the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. In the spirit of Partnership, John August and Tony Wagner, LMP's union and management leaders, respectively, sat down together to talk about their work.

Tony Wagner

Work History

Before coming to Kaiser Permanente in February 2005, served as executive administrator, hospital systems, for the San Francisco Department of Public Health, responsible for Laguna Honda Hospital, the Office of Managed Care, and the Office of Quality Management; previously was CEO of Laguna Honda Hospital in San Francisco, and held executive positions for the Community Health Network of San Francisco, which is San Francisco's healthcare delivery system; and UCSF Medical Center.

Education

Bachelor's degree: Zoology from Southern Illinois University, Edwardsville Master's degree: Hospital and Health Care Administration from the University of Minnesota

Boards/Organizations

Serves on the board of directors of Longs Drug Stores, Lumetra, Third Baptist Church of San Francisco; co-chairs Northern and Central California Hospital Council's Disparities in Health of San Francisco African Americans Project; vice president, San Francisco Institute on Aging; Western States Affiliate of the American Heart Association

What attracted you to the Labor Management Partnership?

Its vision. Having been a health care executive in the Bay Area, I've long been an admirer of this Partnership. It took a lot of vision and risk taking on the part of both leaders – John Sweeney at the AFL-CIO and David Lawrence at Kaiser Permanente - to have started this back in 1997. It took a lot of innovation since then from Kaiser Permanente and the Union Coalition to have continued with the Partnership. To have the opportunity to play a role in bringing the Partnership to fruition is a great motivator. When, not if, we are successful in fully operationalizing it, I believe we will be in the strongest position in relation to our competitors, to make Kaiser Permanente the health care organization of choice for people in the communities we serve.

What is your vision for the Labor Management Partnership?

My vision for the Partnership is that it will no longer require an Office of Labor Management Partnership, and that it won't require the position I now hold, because the Partnership will have become the way we operate as an organization. It will become Kaiser Permanente's operational model and the way we serve our communities. The sooner that happens, the stronger we become as an organization.

John August

Work History

Before joining the Union Coalition in April 2006, served as deputy director, Health Systems Division, SEIU, leading collective bargaining and health care organizing campaigns across the U.S.; previously held several leadership positions with SEIU, the Teamsters, the American Federation of Teachers, and the Communications Workers of America.

Education

Bachelor's degree: University of Wisconsin, political science
Graduate studies: University of Wisconsin, educational policy studies

What attracted you to the Labor Management Partnership?

I've always been a tremendous fan of the Kaiser Permanente model of health care delivery. If you spend so much time in the organizing and representation of health care workers, you can't help but study Kaiser Permanente. That model of care could help the whole country and frankly even other parts of the world. I'm very proud to be associated with that.

What is your vision for the Labor Management Partnership?

I see the LMP as a stepping stone to full integration, and that's a challenge. My aspiration is that one day we can all pick up the Wall Street Journal, Fortune magazine, the Journal of the American Medical Association, newspapers and radio stations across the United States, so that everybody in the country knows that Kaiser Permanente is the best place to get health care and the best place to work, and is the reason why everybody ought to join a union.