UNAC/UHCP President Ken Deitz, RN, has announced his retirement from our union after serving five years as President, four years as Executive Vice President, and decades as a staff representative, representation coordinator and negotiator for the union.
Ken started with UNAC/UHCP as an affiliate officer at Kaiser Fontana. A 27 year RN, Ken worked in the ICU and CCU before moving on to spend a majority of his nursing career providing in-patient hemodialysis. Once at UNAC/UHCP, he quickly became known for his passionate advocacy on behalf of UNAC/UHCP members, especially at contract negotiations. From 1992-2015, Ken was the chief negotiator for UNAC/UHCP during Kaiser bargaining. Ken successfully negotiated the original St. Francis and Sharp contracts impacting over 5,000 present-day members. Under his leadership, UNAC/UHCP has added over 5,000 new members, including thousands in new health care professional classifications, from case managers, patient educators, physical and occupational therapists to midwives and wound ostomy nurses.
At the January 16, 2016 Executive Council meeting, per Article VI, Section 609B and Article VIII, Section 805 of the UNAC/UHCP Constitution, the Executive Council voted to designate Executive Vice President Denise Duncan, RN, as UNAC/UHCP President until the office is up for election again in 2018.
We thank Ken for his long and distinguished career fighting for the rights of UNAC/UHCP members. We wish him all the best in retirement.