Members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals have ratified labor contracts covering about 31,000 registered nurses and healthcare professionals at Kaiser Permanente facilities in California and Hawaii.
The agreements were approved by an overwhelming majority after about a year of bargaining, according to a March 20 union news release shared with Becker’s. Set to expire Sept. 29, 2029, the contracts also align expiration dates across the union for the first time in more than two decades.
“This agreement reflects everything our members stood up and stood together for: safe staffing, improved access and respect for the professionals who provide critical care every day,” UNAC/UHCP President Charmaine Morales, RN, said in the release.
According to the union, key provisions include ending “paper staffing” for Southern California registered nurses so certain roles are not counted toward nurse-to-patient ratios, establishing clearer processes to address staffing shortfalls, expanding physician assistants’ and nurse practitioners’ input into care standards and improving staffing to reduce patient wait times. The agreements also include protected training time for Hawaii pharmacists to support medication safety.
The union said the contracts also include its largest wage increases to date.
The agreements follow multiple strikes since negotiations began in March 2025. About 31,000 nurses and healthcare professionals held a five-day strike in October and a weekslong strike beginning in January that the union has described as the largest open-ended strike of nurses and healthcare professionals in U.S. history.
Becker’s has reached out to Kaiser Permanente for comment and will update this story if more information becomes available.
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