An indication is posted on the outside of the Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center on September 08, 2023 in Vallejo, California.
Justin Sullivan | Getty Images
Greater than 75,000 employees at the most important nonprofit private health-care provider in the USA are poised to strike Wednesday after negotiations failed to achieve an agreement over the weekend.
The employees’ contract with Kaiser Permanente expired Saturday with disagreements still simmering over staffing levels, which unions have made a spotlight of their demands, together with higher pay and advantages.
The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions on Monday accused Kaiser of negotiating in bad faith and committing unfair labor practices.
Staff will strike Wednesday morning if Kaiser executives don’t take “dramatic motion now to resolve the Kaiser short staffing crisis by investing in its workforce,” the coalition said in a press release to CNBC.
The strike will goal a whole bunch of Kaiser facilities across California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Virginia and Washington, D.C., in response to the coalition.
Kaiser Permanente serves nearly 13 million patients. The nonprofit operates 39 hospitals and greater than 600 medical offices across eight states and D.C.
The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions’ membership includes medical assistants, surgical and lab technicians, pharmacists, and administrative staff amongst other health-care employees.
A Kaiser spokesperson on Monday said that negotiations are ongoing, and previously said Kaiser stays optimistic an agreement might be reached and that a strike might be averted.
Kaiser also has said it has contingency plans to make sure patients proceed to receive care during a strike.
Short staffing, a long-standing problem within the health-care sector, has led to unsafe wait times for patients and deteriorating care at Kaiser facilities, the union says.
“Kaiser executives refuse to acknowledge how much patient care has deteriorated or how much the frontline healthcare workforce and patients are suffering due to Kaiser short-staffing crisis,” Dave Regan, president of SEIU-United Healthcare Staff West, said late last month
Kaiser reported a profit of $2 billion within the second quarter this 12 months, compared with a lack of $1.2 billion in the identical period in 2022.
The nonprofit generated $25 billion in revenue within the second quarter of this 12 months.
