Ken@unac-ca.org
“As a Registered Nurse for over thirty years, I view UNAC/UHCP as a leader among unions when it comes to advocating for the patient. Our collective bargaining efforts with non-profit, public and private health care providers have yielded superior wages and benefits for our members throughout Southern California. These accomplishments can only begin to explain why I have remained a committed member of UNAC/UHCP for my entire professional career.”
Ken Deitz was elected to the post of President for the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) at the 2010 Convention. A tough and tenacious negotiator, Ken has been a leader in bargaining almost every UNAC/UHCP contract during the last 20 years.
Since 1992, Ken has served as chief negotiator during bargaining with Kaiser Permanente. In 2000, the first year of bargaining after the creation of the Labor Management Partnership, he was on the Bargaining Task Group for Quality and served on the Common Issues Committee (CIC). Five years later, he was on the Special Task Group for Attendance and again served on the CIC. Members of the St. Francis Registered Nurses Association and Sharp Professional Nurses Network have also benefited from Ken’s skills as a negotiator.
Before becoming the union’s President, Ken served the UNAC/UHCP membership as a staff representative as well as the union’s chief negotiator. He now leads a team of directors and staff that work to ensure the best contracts are negotiated and enforced at all facilities. In conjunction with UNAC/UHCP’s legal department, he reviews all cases appealed to arbitration and works with local affiliates when needed. Ken has upgraded his skills as a union leader by taking courses in bargaining, representation and arbitration at the George Meany Center/National Labor College.
Ken earned his Associate of Science Degree in nursing at Chaffey Junior College in Alta Loma, C.A., after serving a four-year stint in the Air Force as a medical corpsman in Albuquerque, N.M. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Nursing at California State University, Los Angeles. A Registered Nurse at Kaiser Fontana from 1979-2006, he’s worked in the Intensive Care Unit and Coronary Care Unit. For the majority of his nursing career, he provided Acute Inpatient Hemodialysis.
“I am proud to be part of such an outstanding and extraordinary union. As our union has grown and matured I have witnessed our leaders rise to the ever greater demand to excel professionally and to be a respected force in the labor community.”
Pamela Brodersen has served on the UNAC/UHCP Board of Directors since 1992. She currently serves as the Medical Office President in the Kaiser Downey Registered Nurses Association.
Pam has been a member of our local and national bargaining teams in many rounds of Kaiser bargaining, and again served as a national bargaining team member in 2012. She has worked for Kaiser for over 36 years.
