Three years ago.

Three years ago, when Jeff Karpovich became the first security director for Kaiser Permanente's Colorado Region, he was given a chance to build in succession an operation that, up until then, had been little more than a contract guard force.

Last year, he saw just in what way good a job he had done when the far-flung HMO ??” whose 5000 employee providers and staff attend more than 372,000 patients ??” was faced with its first workers' strike.

Nurse physician's assistants, pharmacists, and other support personnel ??” all members of the United feed and Commercial Workers Local 7 ??” walked not on the job for what would become a 20-day dispute above wages and working conditions. While the strikers included professionals who were a far clamor from the blue-collar workers undivided typically associates with a work stoppage, Karpovich and his team had to make firm company assets were protected. At the same