Kaiser Workers Go on 3-Day Strike in Several States
A three-day strike has been called against one of the largest provider organizations in the U.S. As the Associated Press’s Stefanie Dzio and Damian Dovarganes wrote on Wednesday, Oct. 4, “Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente workers took to picket lines in multiple states on Wednesday, starting a massive strike that the company warned could cause delays at its hospitals and clinics that serve nearly 13 million Americans. The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, representing about 85,000 of the health system’s employees nationally, approved a strike for three days in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, and for one day in Virginia and Washington, D.C. Some 75,000 people were expected to participate in the pickets” against the Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente, they wrote.
Meanwhile, Reuters’ Ahmed Aboulenein reported on Wednesday that “Those walking off the job include nurses, medical technicians and other support staff at hundreds of hospitals in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Virginia and Washington D.C. Kaiser said hospitals and emergency departments would remain open, staffed by doctors, managers and ‘contingency workers.’”
The AP reporters quoted Mikki Fletchall, described as a licensed vocational nurse based in a Kaiser medical office in Camarillo, California, as stating that “They’re not listening to the frontline health care workers. We’re striking because of our patients.”
CNN’s Samantha Delouya, in her report filed Wednesday afternoon, quoted a statement from Kaiser Permanente administration that read thus: “Every health care provider in the nation has been facing staffing shortages and fighting burnout. During the Great Resignation in 2021-22, more than 5 million people left their health care jobs across the country. Up to two-thirds of health care staff are saying they are burnt out and more than 1 in 5 are quitting. Kaiser Permanente is not immune from these challenges.”
Delouya further reported that “Striking employees say staff shortages have left them feeling overworked and burnt out. In a recent statement, Kaiser Permanente said it has agreed to accelerate hiring, setting a goal of hiring 10,000 new people for union-represented jobs by the end of 2023. The union coalition is demanding higher pay, a strategy by Kaiser Permanente management to tackle chronic staff shortages, protections against outsourcing, and earlier notice when management calls remote workers back to in-person work. According to an update by the SEIU-UHW, negotiating progress was made before the strike began, though management and the unions are still far apart regarding employee raises. Kaiser Permanente has offered location-dependent wage increases, with a maximum of 4 percent for each of the four years of the new contract, according to an October 1 update by SEIU-UHW. The coalition rejected that offer, saying such a raise proposal fails to keep up with the cost of living.”
Meanwhile, the New York Times’s Reed Abelson and Emily Baumgartner wrote on Wednesday afternoon that “Doctors and many nurses were not involved in the strike, but Kaiser officials warned that some non-urgent procedures might be postponed, some clinic hours might be reduced and that waits on phone calls for assistance could be lengthy. Some locations were also temporarily closed or operating with reduced hours. Talks appeared to continue on Wednesday, after the previous contract expired over the weekend. But there were few reports of any progress during the day,” they wrote.
They further wrote that “Workers in Georgia and Hawaii will remain on the job, according to a Kaiser official, and walkouts were expected to be limited in Washington state. In Virginia and the District of Columbia, only pharmacists and optometrists were striking for one day. Maryland workers did not take part. Kaiser emphasized that it put contingency plans in place, and was keeping all hospitals and emergency departments open.”
All the news reports noted that the strike is expected to last only three days, but could put pressure on Kaiser executives as contract negotiations go forward and need to be resolved sometime this fall.
