Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers in California and Hawaii walked off the job early Monday in the latest work stoppage to roil the nation’s largest not-for-profit medical provider.
Up to 31,000 registered nurses, nurse anesthetists, pharmacists, midwives, physician assistants, rehab therapists, speech language pathologists, dietitians and other specialty healthcare professionals are involved in the open-ended strike.
The workers previously held a five-day walkout, with marches and picket lines in rainy weather, in October.
The union that represents the striking Kaiser workers, called United Nurses Assns. of California/Union of Health Care Professionals and known as UNAC/UHCP, said it called a new strike because contract talks had stalled. Workers accused Kaiser Permanente of unlawfully undermining negotiations and attempting to intimidate workers by warning them about the consequences of striking and directing their peers to report union activity to management.
The union’s president, Charmaine Morales, said in an interview that Kaiser Permanente had unilaterally stopped the bargaining process in mid-December, halting talks both with a national coalition of labor groups representing workers at the healthcare system, as well as with local chapters. Although the company had recently resumed negotiations with workers in Northern California, and agreed to re-starting talks with other union units in California, no dates have been set for bargaining, she said.
“The delay is disappointing,” Morales said. “They need to return to the table, that’s the biggest thing. You can’t go anywhere [in contract talks] if you’re not at the table.”
Meanwhile, the Oakland-based healthcare system in a statement accused the union of attempting “to coerce concessions” by compiling and threatening to release a report describing alleged unethical and unsafe practices by the company, and filed a lawsuit last week arguing the union was not acting in good faith. The lawsuit, filed Jan. 21 in federal court in the Central District of California, seeks to dismantle a coalition of labor groups representing Kaiser workers across the country to do away with the process of bargaining compensation packages nationally, and instead negotiate with local units.
The coalition, called the Alliance of Health Care Unions, is made up of 23 local unions, and includes UNAC/UHCP.
UNAC/UHCP has been pushing for increased salaries and for solutions to staffing shortages in contract negotiations that have continued for more than seven months, but has said Kaiser Permanente has scrapped discussions seeking to address burn out and safety. The union’s collective bargaining agreements with Kaiser Permanente expired Sept. 30.
The union has requested raises of 25% over four years, arguing that the wage boosts are necessary to compensate for the far smaller increases workers received in their 2021 contract negotiations, when they received a 2% raise in the first year. Kaiser Permanente said it has proposed 21.5% wage increases, describing it as its “strongest national bargaining offer ever.”
“Our focus remains on reaching agreements that recognize the vital contributions of our employees while ensuring high-quality, affordable care,” said Camille Applin-Jones, senior vice president at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, in a statement on Sunday. “Employees deserve their raises, and patients deserve our full attention, not prolonged disputes.”
Applin-Jones said Kaiser has contingency plans in place to continue to fill in gaps in patient care during the strike. The company has, during past work stoppages, hired thousands of temporary nurses, clinicians and other staff to take the place of striking workers. All hospitals and “nearly all” medical offices would remain open, Applin-Jones said; some appointments may be shifted from in-person to virtual, while some elective surgeries, and procedures may need to be rescheduled.
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