PRESS RELEASE

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Press Contacts: See below

March 30, 2018

New Alliance of Kaiser Unions Hires an Executive Director,

Picks Name
LOS ANGELES, CA—The Alliance of Health Care Unions (AHCU) announced its name today
and its first hire: Executive Director Peter diCicco, founder and longtime Executive Director of
the original Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, from which the alliance unions withdrew
last week.

“We’re excited that Peter’s joining us,” said Denise Duncan, RN, President of UNAC/UHCP.
“There could be no more perfect choice. I was there when Peter first brought the unions at Kaiser
into coalition and within a few years built a visionary labor-management partnership from the
ground up. He's tough, innovative, and his belief in what we’ve built through partnership over
the last two decades is inspirational.”

Mr. diCicco founded the original Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions (CKPU) in 1997 and
served as its first Executive Director from its inception through February 2006. He was a chief
architect of the Labor-Management Partnership (LMP) between Kaiser and the coalition unions.
He negotiated the first national agreement between the coalition and Kaiser in 2000. As
Executive Director of the CKPU, he had overall responsibility for its strategies, direction and
operation, including its national staff.

The trailblazing Labor-Management Partnership between Kaiser Permanente and the original
coalition of unions was born as a response to financial difficulties faced by Kaiser during the
1990s. It drove innovation that improved the quality of health care, reflected in rising quality
ratings for KP and increased affordability for patients. It’s the largest, longest-running and most
comprehensive labor-management partnership in the United States, well-studied within academia
while its innovations in integrated health care delivery have been widely adopted throughout the
entire United States’ health care system.

“I feel like I’m coming home in joining the AHCU,” said diCicco. “But we’ve got our work cut
out for us. We’re working to establish a new structure that builds on what worked best with the
prior coalition, while addressing internal coalition issues that became obvious in recent years and
ultimately drove the creation of this new Alliance.”

The AHCU is in the process of drafting a constitution and intends to formalize its structure
within the next few weeks. The twenty-one unions of the Alliance include locals of AFSCME,
UFCW, USW, IBT, KPNAA, IUOE, OFNHP (AFT), and ILWU. Together these local unions
represent over 45,000 members across hundreds of job classifications in nearly every geographic
area where Kaiser Permanente has a presence.

“I’m happy Peter has offered to help in this historic moment for the new Alliance,” said
Adrienne Enghouse, RN, President of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Healthcare
Professionals (OFNHP, AFT Local 5017). “It was through Peter’s founding work that we were
able to establish national standard-setting health care contracts and quality patient care while
making KP the best place to work. I believe with Peter’s leadership the Alliance can reinvigorate
our partnership.”

Mr. diCicco’s most recent accomplishment in a career spanning decades in top positions within
the labor movement was to help develop the terms of merger for SAG and AFTRA, two of the
biggest entertainment talent unions, now SAG-AFTRA.

His union activity began in 1964 as a shop steward at GE in Lynn, Massachusetts, where he
worked as a machinist, power generator assembler and aircraft engine inspector. Over the
decades since he rose from Executive Board member with IUE Local 501 during a 103-day
national strike in 1969-70, to International Vice President for the IUE in 1970 and President of
the AFL-CIO’s Industrial Union Department (IUD) in 1996, before founding the CKPU the
following year.

Press Contacts:

Peter diCicco, Executive Director, Alliance of Health Care Unions (AHCU)

(202) 256-2868

Denise Duncan, RN, President | (818) 807-8404

United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP)
Southern California

Adrienne Enghouse, RN, President | 503-810-4489

Oregon Federation of Nurses and Healthcare Professionals (OFNHP, AFT Local 5017)
Portland, OR

Nate Bernstein, Healthcare Division Director | 303-588-2282

UFCW Local 7, Denver, CO

Mandy Hartz, United Steelworkers International | 412-953-0583

USW Local 7600, Fontana, CA

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The Alliance of Health Care Unions (AHCU) is comprised of 21 local unions in the following
Kaiser Permanente operating regions: UNAC/UHCP (AFSCME), UFCW Locals 1167, 135,
1428, 1442, 324 and 770, USW Local 7600, IBT Local 166, KPNAA, and IUOE Local 501 in
Southern California; HGEA (AFSCME) in Hawaii; UFCW Locals 27 and 400 in the Mid-
Atlantic; UFCW Local 7 and IUOE Local 1 in Colorado; OFNHP (AFT Local 5017), UFCW
Local 555, and ILWU Local 28 in the Northwest; UFCW Local 21 in Washington state; and
UFCW Local 1996 in Georgia.