About the Health Care Division
SEIU Local 105 represents more than 2,700 health care employees, including more than 2,000 employees at Kaiser Permanente and over 400 employees at the Mental Health Center of Denver (MHCD).
As the largest health care union in the United States, we are particularly proud of our work in the health care industry. Health care workers here in Colorado as well as across the country have come together under the SEIU banner not just to earn fair wages and benefits, but to ensure quality health care for America’s patients.
Ensuring Quality Services By Making Our Voices Heard
At SEIU Local 105 our members are proud of the fact that quality services is job one. That’s also why we take such pride in our Labor Management partnership with Kaiser Permanente, dedicated first and foremost to ensuring that all patients receive the best care by seeking and acting on advice and feedback from Kaiser staff.
That said, while we know this partnership has done tremendous things to improve customer service and employee satisfaction, we also know we still have work to do to make the partnership the best it can be. It’s for that reason that Local 105 staff lead by President Mateos Alvarez have taken to Kaiser work sites to hold meetings and town halls.
“While no workplace is perfect, because we have a union we actually have a voice in making our worksite better” said Alvarez. “But, we can only make those changes that need to happen if we speak up and make our voices heard” he continued. So, over the coming days, weeks, and months we would encourage everyone to participate in making Kaiser Permanente a stronger workplace by making sure our voices are heard. For as sample of our workplace town halls see below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CIABtr1PThc
Kaiser Permanente to Expand Call Center, Create More Good Paying Jobs
Just two years ago, Kaiser Permanente was preparing to close their call center in the Lowry neighborhood. The call center that deals with benefits, coverage, and billing for Kaiser had become inefficient and was losing Kaiser money. However, rather than see 75 jobs leave Colorado, the members of SEIU Local 105 banded together and told the management of Kaiser that there was another way, indeed with workers help we could make the call center more efficient.
Today, we are proud to say that thanks to the members of SEIU Local 105s ideas and feedback, the call center is not only more efficient (to the tune of $1.2 million), and those 75 jobs saved, but now Kaiser has announced they will EXPAND the call center by 140 employees! Let this be a lesson to employers across this great state- unions don’t kill jobs, they help create them. For more on this story see below:
http://www.bizjournals.com/denver/news/2011/09/08/kaiser-permanente-to-add-140-denver.html