Kaiser Permanente mental medical examiners and supporters march outside a Kaiser facility in Sacramento, California, Aug. 15, 2022.
Wealthy Pedroncelli | AP
Greater than 60,000 health-care staff on Thursday voted to authorize a strike against Kaiser Permanente if an agreement will not be reached when their current contract expires Sept. 30.
Members of SEIU-United Healthcare Employees West voted 98% in favor of a strike over complaints that pay has not kept pace with inflation and understaffing has led to long wait times and the neglect of patients.
The California union’s greater than 57,000 members include medical assistants, surgical technicians and social staff amongst other health-care professionals.
Some 4,000 health-care staff in Oregon and Washington state voted to authorize strikes against Kaiser later Thursday. In Colorado, 3,000 staff authorized strikes against Kaiser last week.
The labor groups are a part of an umbrella organization called the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions that represents 85,000 health-care staff in total. The coalition says the strikes, should they happen, could be the most important by health-care staff in U.S. history.
Kaiser Permanente is considered one of the most important nonprofit health plans within the U.S. with nearly 13 million members. It operates 39 hospitals and greater than 600 medical offices across eight states and Washington, D.C.
The coalition entered contract negotiations with Kaiser Permanente in April. The unions’ last contract was negotiated in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the nation’s health-care system to the brink. There may be a final national bargaining session scheduled for Sept. 21-22.
Dave Regan, president of SEIU-United Healthcare Employees West, said Kaiser has did not negotiate in good faith and its proposals would make staffing problems worse.
“Nearly 60,000 frontline staff at Kaiser facilities have overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike because we are going to simply not stand by as Kaiser violates the law and puts patients in danger,” Regan said in a press release Thursday.
Kaiser Permanente, in a press release Thursday, called the unions’ claims misleading and urged employees to withstand any call for an actual strike. Kaiser said it has a comprehensive plan in place to make sure continued access to health care should a strike happen.
In late August, Kaiser called the strike threats “disappointing” and said union claims that it has not acted in good faith are “unfounded and counterproductive.”
