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Thursday, Mar 28, 2024

Kaiser Workers Approve Strike For October

Kaiser Permanente workers in California have voted to strike beginning in October, according to a statement from the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. The strike affects more than 17,000 Kaiser workers in Los Angeles County, and 3,600 at Valley locations in Woodland Hills and Panorama City. Members of the Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West were given a little more than two weeks to vote on strike authorization; those in California showed up in force, with two-thirds of workers casting ballots. Of 37,000 votes, 98 percent decided to strike. Only 867 California workers decided against the strike. “This strike vote is about stopping Kaiser’s unfair labor practices,” said Heather Wright, a women’s health clerk at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Clara. “This company should be all about providing the best possible patient care, but unfortunately its focus in recent years has been on making billions of dollars in profits and millions of dollars for Kaiser executives.” “We feel that Kaiser has lost their way. They’re putting profit over the patient care issues, like staffing or backfilling when staff is out sick,” added Mikki Fletchall, a nurse at Kaiser’s Woodland Hills location. Fletcher has been with Kaiser for 13 years, and a nurse for 30 years. According to the unions, workers are striking to make sure there is adequate staffing, build the workforce to deal with projected staff shortages and ensure better wages and benefits. “To be clear, Kaiser Permanente has presented a contract proposal that would provide annual pay increases that would keep our employees compensated higher than market averages and maintain excellent benefits,” John Nelson, vice president of communications, Kaiser Permanente, said in a statement. “Contrary to the union’s claims, there are no pay cuts and no changes to our employees’ defined pension benefit, under our proposal.” Nelson stressed that a vote to strike does not mean that a strike will actually happen. “It does place Kaiser Permanente in the position of having to spend millions of dollars preparing for the threat of a strike event. Our first priority is always continuity of care for our patients and members,” he said in his statement. Kaiser employees in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia will vote to strike through mid-September.

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