A sign advocating for safe staffing in healthcare outside of a Maui home.
Digital Content Producer
Jeremiah hails from the west side of Oahu—raised in Waipahu and graduated from Pearl City. He studied at Oregon State University then at the University of Southern California for his master’s. He returned home and joined KITV as a digital content producer in August 2024.
A sign advocating for safe staffing in healthcare outside of a Maui home.
MAUI COUNTY, Hawaii (Island News) — United Nurses and Health Care Employees of Hawaii (UNHCEH) nurses and healthcare workers overwhelmingly voted to ratify a new four-year contract with Maui Health/Kaiser Permanente.
This contract includes historic gains fulfilling negotiations set out on: over four years, raises totaling between 27% and 49.86% will be made for the lowest paid workers including clerical staff and receptionists. The wages of all union members will increase at a minimum of 21% up to 97.52% over the life of the agreement.
Under the contract, Maui Memorial Medical Center, Kula Hospital and Lanai Community Hospital will have enforceable staffing levels and standards.
“Our members fought hard, with a lot of public support, and we won a historic contract,” said Matt Pelc, CT Tech and Chair of UNHCEH. “We won a comprehensive plan to develop staffing ratios and have them enforceable through our contract, a system specific to our hospital that will make Maui Health a safe place to be a patient. We also won life changing money for our lowest paid members, so they’ll no longer have to work a second job, will have more time with their families, and we can keep families together here on Maui.”
The tentative agreement was reached on Dec. 20, 2024 A second strike would have been initiated by the UNHCEH bargaining team if the agreement was not reached. UNHCEH members held a series of meetings from Jan. 2 to 6 where the full details of the agreement were reviewed and discussed. An anonymous electronic voting process took place after and the votes were analyzed today.
UNHCEH held a first-ever strike from Nov. 4 to 7, 2024 which led up to this new contract. On November 26, The Maui County Council passed a resolution on Nov. 26 urging Maui Health and Kaiser to settle the negotiations in the best interests of all Maui residents.
“This was a huge victory,” said China Kapuras, Case Manager, and a member of the lowest-paid A4 classification. “This is history—nothing like this has ever happened in all the years I’ve worked at this hospital. It makes me feel worthwhile. All of us won this together, out on that three-day strike. It shows what a great strong family we have, fighting for what we believe so we can take care of our patients. Our patients come first, and we want to do the best job we can for them.”
The contract is in effect from Oct. 1, 2024 to Sept. 30, 2028. These negotiations began on July 22, lasting for 26 bargaining sessions.
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Maui nurses are calling the new four-year contract they ratified today with Maui Health a huge victory.
Digital Content Producer
Jeremiah hails from the west side of Oahu—raised in Waipahu and graduated from Pearl City. He studied at Oregon State University then at the University of Southern California for his master’s. He returned home and joined KITV as a digital content producer in August 2024.
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