Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente employees will walk out in sympathy on Thursday morning at Northern California medical centers with engineers, who have been striking for about two months over wage disputes.
At least 40,000 members of unions SEIU-UHW, OPEIU Local 29 and IFPTE Local 20, representing healthcare workers, optometrists, phlebotomists, X-ray technicians, clinical lab scientists and other employees, are scheduled to participate in the walk-out. Some of them will picket in solidarity at 7 a.m. if Kaiser and Local 39 IUOE, which represents about 600 operating engineers, don’t reach an agreement. According to SEIU-UHW, the sympathy strike will be the largest in the country.
“The engineers want modest raises, they want to maintain all their benefits and keep their working conditions, and we’re concerned about what Kaiser wants to do when we come to the bargaining table,” said Ethan Ruskin, a health educator at Kaiser San Jose and a member of the SEIU-UHW. “They’re effectively getting a pay cut and housing prices are getting higher in the Bay Area. For a company that made $6 billion in profit during the pandemic to be offering that — they’re not asking for the moon, they’re asking for a fair contract.”
The engineers have been on strike since their contract expired on Sept. 17 because they say they’re getting paid lower rates by Kaiser than other health care providers in the Bay Area. Kaiser said that engineers earn more than $180,000 in wages and benefits and that union leadership is “asking for unreasonable increases far beyond any other union at Kaiser Permanente.”
More than 20,000 registered nurses and 2,000 mental health professionals represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers are also planning to sympathy strike on Friday if an agreement isn’t reached by then.
Kaiser said in a statement that bargaining talks with Local 39 have resumed on Tuesday and Wednesday and it’s “committed to bargaining as long as it takes to reach an agreement that continues to reward our employees and supports health care affordability, just as we have with several unions this week.”
The clash between the health care giant and its workers come as medical centers prepare for the influx of COVID-19 patients during an anticipated winter surge. Kaiser’s medical centers across the Bay Area, all the way out to Sacramento and into the Central Valley, will be impacted by the sympathy strikes.
Kaiser said on Wednesday that all of their medical centers in Northern California are diverting stroke and severe heart attack patients to other centers through Friday. Emergency departments will stay open but patients could “encounter longer wait times this week due to a labor strike,” Kaiser said.
“During the strike, care will be provided by physicians and experienced clinical managers and staff, with the support of trained and qualified contingency staff,” Kaiser said. “All our hospitals and emergency departments will continue to be open during a strike and remain safe places to receive care.”
Some Kaiser patients said their surgeries have been postponed ahead of the anticipated sympathy strikes and Kaiser said that “some non-urgent medical appointments or procedures may be affected.”
Kaiser previously reached a deal early Monday morning with thousands of its pharmacists, averting a strike that sent patients rushing to refill prescriptions before the planned pharmacy shutdowns. Kaiser is encouraging employees who plan to sympathy strike on Thursday and Friday to come to work instead.
“We question why leaders of other unions are asking their members to walk out on patients on Nov. 18 and 19 in sympathy for Local 39,” the health provider said. “This will not bring us closer to an agreement and most important, it is unfair to our members and patients to disrupt their care when they most need our employees to be there for them.”
In addition to the engineers, mental health workers, including social workers, psychologists and marriage and family therapists represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers also have an expired contract.
Kaiser said that it’s “indisputably one of the most labor-friendly organizations” in the country, while at the same time, stressing to unions participating in the sympathy strikes that “in accordance with their contracts, these sympathy strikes are not protected by law.”
“Kaiser management is unfortunately taking an almost union-busting stance and we’re frankly shocked and we call on them to respect the rights of workers to stand with other workers and return to the principles of the partnership that we’re committed to,” said John Mader, union president of IFPTE Local 20, who said that around 1,700 members of his union are planning to walk out. “This action we’re taking is because we think it’s the right thing for workers and patient safety and we call on Kaiser management to recognize that.”