Provider disunity on labor. Kaiser, CHW adopt strikingly different strategies with unions.

In the past, when it came to labor relations in the healthcare industry, adversarial encounters were the norm. But times are changing, at least at some healthcare organizations, notably Kaiser Permanente, which late last month signed a national labor contract with some two dozen unions. Elsewhere, however, confrontation is often still the order of the day, especially between nurse unions and Catholic Healthcare West.