Balancing Acts: Dynamics of a Union Coalition in a Labor Management Partnership

Abstract

This paper analyzes the experience of a set of unions that formed a coalition to engage in coordinated bargaining and to build and sustain a labor management partnership with Kaiser Permanente, a large healthcare provider and insurer. We use qualitative and quantitative data, including member and leader surveys, to explore the experience of the coalition in confronting five key challenges identified through theory and prior research on such partnerships. We find that the coalition has been remarkably successful, under difficult circumstances, in achieving institutional growth for its member unions and in balancing traditional and new union roles and communicating with members. The unions have been less successful in increasing member involvement.

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