![]() ![]() And, they say, KP hospitals and clinics are severely understaffed, forcing workers to put in long hours and fill multiple roles. The unions say their lowest-paid workers can barely make ends meet in the face of soaring prices for food, gasoline, and other essentials. The coalition, which is pushing for uniform wage increases across all regions, contends that management’s proposal is part of a “ divide-and-conquer strategy.” Peasnall said the union’s stance “would prevent us from addressing fair market wages where we need to pay more to attract and retain the best people.” KP prefers varying wage increases across regions, since the cost of living can vary sharply. KP executives agree there should be an organization-wide floor, but they’ve proposed $21. The coalition wants a $25-an-hour minimum wage across the company. 30 and, after months of talks, the two sides still disagree over pay and staffing. ![]() “Our front-line health care workers are fed up, and we really need Kaiser executives to seize the initiative and move forward on resolving the contract.” “We will be bargaining with Kaiser up until the day we go on strike,” said Caroline Lucas, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents about 40% of KP’s workforce. You’re not going to get meals,” August said.Īrlene Peasnall, Kaiser Permanente’s senior vice president for human resources, said the Oakland, California-based health care giant’s goal is “to reach a mutually beneficial agreement before any work stoppage occurs.” But she also said the nonprofit has plans in place to blunt the impact of a walkout. You risk problems with infection control. “You are immediately subject to problems with not being able to get patients in and out of the hospital. If workers walk off their jobs, “it will start to impact patient care right away,” said John August, director of health care and partner programs at Cornell University’s Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution, who is a former head of the union coalition currently negotiating with KP. The unions represent a wide range of KP health workers, including lab technicians, phlebotomists, pharmacists, optometrists, social workers, orderlies, and support staff.Ī strike, if it occurs, would affect most of Kaiser Permanente’s 39 hospitals and 622 medical offices across the U.S., and would disrupt care for many of its nearly 13 million patients. 4-7, disrupting care for KP patients in California, Colorado, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Washington, D.C. Unless a deal is struck, more than 75,000 health workers will walk out for three days from Oct. Please tell us what it has been like for you as you have sought and received care, including the good and the bad, the obstacles and the successes. Saturday.We want to hear about your experiences and, with your permission, may incorporate your story into our coverage. The first employees to return to work will start shifts at 6 a.m. Hospitals and clinics remained open throughout the work freeze as physicians and registered nurses remained on the job, though some services were reportedly slowed. Costa on Friday declined to comment on the details of negotiations. Union officials on Wednesday reported that they’d reached tentative agreements on some benefits issues but that other sticking points remained. That deadline passed without a deal, as employees sought higher staffing levels along with annual pay increases over the life of a contract. The strike was set in motion in mid-September when the unions voted in favor of walking off the job if an agreement wasn’t reached by Sept. It’s one of labor’s top remaining priorities from the state’s legislative session after the Democratic governor frustrated the movement by vetoing proposals that would have put strict limits on the deployment of autonomous trucks and given striking workers access to unemployment benefits. The proposal - a deal hammered out by health care employers and unions - would guarantee California health care workers a $25 minimum wage by 2026. The Kaiser walkout also came as a health care minimum wage bill sat on California Gov. ![]() The health care industry, in particular, has experienced a wave of worker strife fueled by pandemic burnout and related staffing crises. The onslaught of labor action has spread nationally, with United Auto Workers striking at American car manufacturing companies. Most Kaiser facilities are located in California, where the nonprofit company is headquartered and momentum from a summer filled with strikes and worker protests has carried over into the fall. ![]()
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