After walking off the job en masse on Wednesday morning, 75,000 striking Kaiser Permanente health workers have entered their second day of a three-day Unfair Labor Practices strike. Kaiser is a US healthcare provider based primarily on the West Coast, and the strike is affecting over 40 medical clinics and hospitals across the nation. Workers on strike include nurses, dietary workers, receptionists, lab technicians, and pharmacists.
The strike is set to end early on Saturday morning.
The coalition of unions representing striking workers, including Service Employees International Union (SEIU)-United Healthcare Workers West (UHW), Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) Local 30, SEIU Local 49, and OPEIU Local 2, has said that it is building for a longer strike in November if a new contract is not won before then. Health workers have embarked on the strike to fight for safer staffing levels amidst a worldwide health worker shortage. Workers say that Kaiser could be doing far more to incentivize workers to stay in the profession by offering better pay and benefits.
In an official statement released prior to the strike, Kaiser Permanente appears to place the blame on workers themselves for the staffing shortage. “Every health care provider in the nation has been facing staffing shortages and fighting burnout,” said a Kaiser spokesperson. “During the Great Resignation in 2021-22, more than 5 million people left their health care jobs across the country.” This particular wording plays off the misleading idea, popularized in the mainstream media, that there is a “labor shortage” because the nation’s workers are simply “resigning,” without pointing to the root causes of burnout—low pay, bad benefits, and little respect on the job.
Many Kaiser workers have also complained that the skyrocketing rents across the country coupled with their stagnant wages, means that many workers can no longer afford to live where they work. “As we speak there are nurses that are sleeping in their cars because of two reasons. One, they can’t afford cost of living here so they have to move two, three hours (away) and then because of short staff they’re working 14, 16 hours so they’re tired,” striking Kaiser worker Rocio Chacon told CNN.
The union coalition is fighting for a pay raise of nearly 25%, while Kaiser Permanente has only offered raises ranging from 12% to 14% according to the unions.
