Kaiser hospital workers hold firm against two-tier BEAT BABRAR TIER

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Northern California. The rally, which took place in a park opposite Kaiser's main Oakland hospital, was supported by all the Central Labor Councils in the Bay Area and by many local unions and community groups.

The strike began on Oct. 27 after management demanded a two-tier wage system that would pay new hires in the smaller towns 30 percent less than current employees. Kaiser also wanted to add two wage categories that would pay less than the lowest wage now paid in San Francisco and Oakland. Wages were to be frozen for three years.

Kaiser is the largest-and most profitable-private health-care system in the world, with 4.5 million members and an annual income of $4.1 billion. Nearly 2 million members in Northern California are affected by the strike.

It is ironic, in view of today's bitter labor dispute, that Kaiser originated as a progressive and innovative system of delivering health care to workers in Henry Kaiser's industrial enterprises. He proposed to take care of all the health needs of workers and their families for a low monthly prepaid fee.

This plan has come to be known as a Health Maintenance Organization (HMO).

= Rail unions (continued from page 1: “Rail bosses step up union-busting attacks”)

ATSF (Atchinson, Topeka, and Santa Fe), the D&RGW (Denver & Rio Grande Western), and the UP (Union Pacific) were on the verge of entering into similar agreements.

"By leasing locomotives with full-service contracts," IAM General Chairman E.B. Kostakis explains, "it will probably result in the participating carriers eliminating all of their repair facilities and perhaps 75 percent to 80 percent of the machinists and leaving all other shop-craft employees without any protection whatever."

Both the IAM and the IBEW suspended the ratification process, called for a new vote on the contract, and for a vote authorizing a national strike. Reports indicate that the membership in both unions authorized a strike by a large majority.

This move by BN and the five other railroads is particularly ominous in that this very question has become a major sticking point in their new national contract. The carriers originally demanded a contract clause eliminating all "restrictions on subcontracting" and eliminating "any impediments to less costly and/or more efficient alternative methods of performing work."

It was only after the carriers withdrew this clause that the tentative contract was submitted to the membership for a ratification vote. It was in the midst of this very vote that the carriers began to secretly implement their plan in defiance of the entire negotiating process. After World War II, many unions enrolled their members in Kaiser. Today 40 percent of Kaiser's enrollees are union members. Together with their families, they number 2 million, forming the backbone of the system.

Kaiser tries to "compete"

Kaiser's rate of growth has slowed during the recent period. But its rate of return on investments remained over 20 percent last year-almost double the national average. Kaiser expects to double its net worth from the current $1 billion to $2 billion in 1989.

Nevertheless, Kaiser fears In an arrogant and insulting statement, BN answered that it was not leasing locomotives but rather "had begun buying megawatt hours of electrical energy...to help meet our locomotive power needs." Such byzantine legalism can hardly obscure the fact that these "megawatt hours of electrical energy" are to be generated by scab locomotives.

MOD Socialist Action/Joe Ryan competition from new HMOs established with other hospitals in recent years. Management proposes to meet this competition by cutting costs-especially wages. And the easiest way to to cut wages, it thinks, is through the two-tier wage system.

The unions representing Kaiser employees, principally the Service Em -ployees International Union (SEIU), are adamantly opposed to the two-tier scheme. They know it will be followed by attempts to drive higher-paid workers out, till most of the employees are working at the lower rates.

The also concerned that historic opportunity exists, not just to get some concessions, but to smash the rail unions and impose a qualitative reduction in wages and working conditions throughout the industry.

To accomplish this, they caused patient care to suffer. Long waits for appointments and hurried examinations by overworked doctors are among patients' complaints.

The unions want a Labor-Management Patient Care Committee to monitor unsafe working conditions and unsafe patient-care conditions. Management has refused to even discuss this demand for better safety. Until it does, the unions vow, they will not return to work.

Other unions on strike at Kaiser are the Engineers and Scientists union; the Hotel and Restaurant Employees, Local 28; the Social Services Workers, Local 535; the warehouse union, Local 6, of the I.L. W.U.; Food and Commercial Workers, Local 373; and the Stationary Engineers, Local 39.

Nurses face injunction

The nurses' contract is not up for renewal at this time, and contains a no-strike clause. The courts, as usual, have come to the employers' aid by issuing an injunction forcing nurses to continue working. An injunction is already in force limiting picketing to a handful at each facility. But a number of nurses are refusing to cross the picket lines.

Unfortunately, the workers in the California South division of Kaiser, who bargain separately, have accepted the two-tier scheme. This will stiffen the resolve of Kaiser management to extend the plan to the rest of the state.

Despite this setback, the unions have one extra means of pressure in this case. Over 150 local labor unions, representing nearly 800,000 workers, have threatened to pull their members out of the plan if a fair settlement is not reached. Several unions are holding up their premium payments pending settlement of the strike.

Continued support by labor, Kaiser members, and the public is essential to a victory in this critical strike.

must prevent rail labor from exercising its full power through a national rail strike. Their plan is to take the unions on and break them company by company. They count on the courts, the government, and Congress as key allies in this strategy.