OAKLAND, Calif. — An estimated 31,000 registered nurses and different front-line Kaiser Permanente well being care staff launched an open-ended strike this week in California and Hawaii to demand higher wages and staffing from the well being care large.
The picketing that started Monday marked the second major walkout in latest months by workers represented by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Well being Care Professionals. A five-day strike in October ended with negotiations resuming, however talks broke down in December.
This week the union accused Kaiser of refusing to return to nationwide bargaining discussions.
“We’ll proceed to push Kaiser to cease their egregious unfair labor practices in opposition to the frontline staff who ship the very best care for his or her sufferers and billions in revenue to do the precise factor, and are available again to the desk to cut price in good religion,” the union bargaining committee stated in a press release.
Kaiser stated Sunday that the union had agreed to return to native bargaining, whilst staff moved ahead with the strike. The corporate stated it paused nationwide bargaining final month after what it described as a threatening incident involving a union official.
“Unlawful threats are a line that can’t be crossed,” Greg Holmes, Kaiser’s chief human assets officer, stated in a press release. “This union official’s actions have compromised the nationwide bargaining course of and undermined each events’ potential to proceed good-faith bargaining.”
These on strike, together with pharmacists, midwives and rehab therapists, say wages haven’t stored tempo with inflation and there’s not sufficient staffing to maintain up with affected person demand.
They’re asking for a 25% wage enhance over 4 years to make up for wages they are saying are no less than 7% behind their friends.
Kaiser Permanente had countered with a 21.5% enhance over 4 years. The corporate says that represented workers earn, on common, 16% greater than their friends, and it must cost prospects extra to fulfill strikers’ pay demand.
Arezou Mansourian, a doctor assistant on the bargaining group, informed the San Francisco Chronicle that Kaiser has been unable to retain and recruit suppliers, which is impacting affected person care. Medical workers have been leaving Kaiser for higher-paying jobs at different native hospitals, Mansourian stated.
She stated the union’s combat for higher working circumstances will in the end assist sufferers as nicely.
“We all know it’s a ache proper now, however it’s in order that we will maintain you higher sooner or later,” Mansourian informed the Chronicle.
The corporate stated well being clinics and hospitals will stay open in the course of the strike, with some in-person appointments shifted to digital appointments, and a few elective surgical procedures and procedures being rescheduled.
Kaiser Permanente is likely one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit well being plans, serving 12.6 million members at 600 medical workplaces and 40 hospitals in largely western U.S. states. It’s primarily based in Oakland, California.
In New York Metropolis, about 15,000 nurses who walked off the job headed back to the bargaining table earlier this month. The New York State Nurses Affiliation stated contract negotiations resumed with officers on the three personal hospital methods impacted by the strike: Montefiore, Mount Sinai and New York-Presbyterian.
