Guild For Professional Pharmacists members reject Kaiser's unprecedented benefit reductions!

A work stopage (strike) is scheduled for 2 days:
Thursday, 4/21/2011 - 12:01 am to Friday, 4/22/2011 - 11:59pm.

We just want the public to know that we are just asking for equal treatment and only seeking comparable benefits to many other Kaiser employees.

The issues currently being debated in contract negotiations are the elimination of retirement pension, reduction in retirement benefits, and elimination of post retirement health care.

Kaiser claims to be under financial distress due to the recent economic “down turn” however, reviewing the annual report from years 2005 to 2009, this is not the case. As you can see from the chart below, nationwide membership was not significantly affected by the recent economic “down turn” and Kaiser was still able to make an average annual profit of 1.6 Billion dollars from 2005 to 2009.

Year	Nationwide members	Annual Profit
2005	8.5 million	1.0 billion
2006	8.7 million	1.4 billion
2007	8.7 million	2.2 billion
2008	8.6 million	1.5 billion
2009	8.6 million	2.1 billion

There are many other benefits that Kaiser wants to cut, but the main sticking point in the negotiations is the elimination of retirement healthcare coverage. How can an organization which prides itself on preventive care and promoting healthy lifestyles, cut out the most important benefit to its employees? The issue of elimination of retirement healthcare is not an issue of money; it is an issue of greed on behalf of the CEOs of Kaiser. This is wrong on general principle, this is merciless and heartless, and this should not be tolerated!