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Many Hands,
One Voice
Spirited Delegates’ Conference Highlights Organizing, Leadership
Outgoing Union Coalition Executive Director
Peter diCicco announced the 30 unions one
by one, and the applause steadily grew to a
roar that overwhelmed the packed meeting room.
Finally, finishing the roll call, diCicco had to shout
over the raucous scene. “You are the leaders of the
Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions!” he said, as
delegates rose from their seats, shouted, and clapped
their hands in a slow rhythm that accelerated to a
deafening staccato.
It was the start of a Union Coalition
delegates’ conference unlike any
other.
Held March 31 to April 2 in Los
Angeles, the annual conference
drew 600 delegates, staff, and visitors
who learned about everything
from implementing the National
Agreement to the fundamentals of
organizing at the front line.
It was a different kind of conference
for the Coalition of Kaiser
Permanente Unions. It anticipated a
future without diCicco, who had led
the coalition since its formation in
1996 as 30 unions learned to work in
collaboration, the basis of the conference’s
“Many Hands, One Voice”
theme. It was bigger, with 200 more
delegates than normally attend the
annual conference. It featured
keynote speakers and workshops
about leadership, workplace mobilization,
and union priorities such as
unit-based teams, staffing, workforce
development, and attendance.
And it launched an ongoing coalition
campaign with clear objectives:
■ Expand union capacity.
■ Identify what a successful implementation
looks like for union
members.
■ Mobilize the 86,000 members of
the coalition to implement the
National Agreement, something
union delegates, through a preconference
questionnaire, said
they feared could be undermined
by barriers ranging from management
inattention to inadequate
staffing to “frontline workers not
understanding how the National
Agreement affected them” and
“labor not being a team player.”
The conference also introduced
new leadership on both sides of
the Partnership. Delegates heard
from Bernard Tyson, the newly
appointed senior vice president of
health plan and hospital operations
and LMP executive sponsor, who
gave a ringing address to delegates
who had grown comfortable with
Leslie Margolin, whose long-time
commitment to the LMP was constant
and obvious. The conference
also heralded the arrival of new
Union Coalition Executive Director
John August, a former line worker,
steward, and local union president
who went on to serve as a harddriving
health care organizer and
leader for several international
unions.
Winning Solidarity
August pledged to assume his
duties, if not at warp speed, then
quickly. “The way I plan to learn is
to learn from you,” he said during
his keynote speech. “I’m not going
to start slow; we’ve got to hit the
ground running and make things
work.”
As on other occasions, August complimented
union leaders for their
long-standing coalition and noted
that they seem to defy nationwide
trends that have employers’ winning
pay and benefit concessions to
improve market positions. “While
Kaiser Permanente is engaging in
Partnership, the rest of the country
is going in the exact opposite direction,”
he said, followed by the more
ominous “Consequently, we are not
only leaders, we are a target.”
August spent the conference learning
from delegates as he talked oneon-one
with them, joined them at
meals, on the dance floor, and at a
celebration for diCicco. He also led
a well-attended workshop on organizing
that emphasized the basics of
mapping worksites, assessing union
commitment, and collaborating to
solve problems.
8 | HANK JUNE 2006