Days after Kaiser reached an agreement with its pharmacists to avoid a strike earlier this week, the health care giant is bracing for thousands of workers to walk off the job at its Northern California medical centers on Thursday and Friday.
Unions representing Kaiser nurses, mental health professionals and others say their members are prepared to strike in sympathy with Kaiser engineers, who have been picketing for better compensation for roughly two months. Kaiser acknowledges that some member services would be affected by the strike but says hospitals will remain open and urgent care available.
Around 40,000 members of three unions representing X-ray technicians, optometrists, phlebotomists, housekeepers and other employees are set to strike for a day if Kaiser and Local 39, which represents hundreds of engineers charged with keeping the health care provider’s buildings running smoothly, don’t reach an agreement by early Thursday morning.
“We are sympathy striking because Kaiser has lost its way and is putting its drive for profits over people, hurting our patients and union co-workers,” said Ethan Ruskin, a health educator at Kaiser San Jose and a member of the SEIU-UHW, which is striking. “The Local 39 engineers play a critical role in maintaining our facilities and the equipment we use to take care of patients.”
According to the SEIU-UHW, it would be the largest sympathy strike in the country in recent memory.
The showdown comes as health care providers across the Bay Area and their employees are battling over work demands, wages and staffing shortages as the pandemic enters its second winter and medical centers prepare for yet another surge in COVID-19 patients.
Beginning Friday morning, more than 20,000 Kaiser registered nurses in the California Nurses Association are expected to strike for 24 hours, along with about 2,000 mental health professionals represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
Kaiser’s medical centers across the Bay Area, out to Sacramento and down into the Central Valley, are expected to be affected by the strike.
Kaiser said some non-urgent medical appointments or procedures might be affected by the strike. Lab, optometry and radiology services could also be closed or reduced. And some outpatient pharmacies are set to close temporarily both days.
“During the strike, care will be provided by physicians and experienced clinical managers and staff, with the support of trained and qualified contingency staff,” Kaiser said. “All our hospitals and emergency departments will continue to be open during a strike and remain safe places to receive care.”
In a note to members Wednesday evening, Kaiser said it anticipated significant wait times, writing, “Emergency Departments at other, non-Kaiser Permanente facilities may have shorter waiting times during this period.”
The engineers say they are striking because the wages proposed by Kaiser are lower than what other major health care providers are willing to pay. But Kaiser has said the engineers earn about $180,000, factoring in wages, benefits and retirement benefits — making them among the highest paid in the profession.
In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Kaiser said the engineers were “asking for unreasonable increases far beyond any other unions at Kaiser Permanente.”
Kaiser said it had resumed bargaining talks with the union on Tuesday and “is committed to bargaining as long as it takes to reach an agreement that continues to reward our employees and supports health care affordability, just as we have with several unions this week.”
Kaiser also urged the unions staging a sympathy strike to come to work instead.
“We question why leaders of other unions are asking their members to walk out on patients on Nov. 18 and 19 in sympathy for Local 39,” the Oakland-based health care provider said. “This will not bring us closer to an agreement and most important, it is unfair to our members and patients to disrupt their care when they most need our employees to be there for them.”
Kaiser engineers are not the only workers still trying to hammer out a contract. Mental health employees — including psychologists, social workers, marriage and family therapists and addiction medicine workers — represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers are also working under an expired contract. The union is pushing Kaiser to hire more mental health staff, saying they are not able to provide necessary treatment in an appropriate amount of time at current staffing levels.
Kaiser has cast itself as “indisputably one of the most labor-friendly organizations” in the U.S. but blasted union leaders for asking workers to show solidarity to the engineers by striking.
But union members planning to strike don’t see it that way.
“We’re embarrassed that Kaiser has dragged the engineers strike on for 8 weeks,” said Kundra Vaughn, a Kaiser Oakland pharmacy technician and member of OPEIU Local 29, which is striking. “Kaiser is supposed to be the labor-friendly health plan. They have lost their way.”
