75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers just walked out.

On Wednesday, an estimated 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers across five states and Washington DC walked out in the largest health care workers strike in US history. After several days of negotiations over fair labor practices and higher wages, company and union members failed to reach a compromise.

Both groups “are still at the bargaining table, having worked through the night in an effort to reach an agreement,” the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions said in a statement, noting there “has been a lot of progress.”

Last month, health care workers threatened to go on strike if Kaiser didn’t agree to increased pay and solutions to the ongoing staff shortage, among other demands, before the union contract’s expiration on Saturday. While the strike is set to last for three days, union members say that they’re prepared to extend it to November if necessary.

“This is a difficult decision, and we know it will require sacrifices of us all,” wrote the Coalition. “but Kaiser executives continue to bargain in bad faith over the solutions we urgently need to the Kaiser short staffing crisis and the safety and well being of our patients and workers is on the line.”

As my colleague, Ruth Murai reported, the hospitals have a contingency plan in place to ensure continued operation.

  • Boddhisatva@lemmy.world
    90·
    1 year ago

    Hmmm, we have the most expensive health care in the world and yet we cannot afford to pay a decent wage to the workers who provide it? Perhaps a for-profit health care system that allows administrators and share holders to reap all the profits at the expense of patients and workers is a bad thing. No, it’s the children health care workers who are wrong.

    • shinyLane@lemmy.worldEnglish
      18·
      1 year ago

      We were hearing Kaiser providers complain of workloads at least 10 years ago. Sad to see nothing has changed. Not surprising in the least.

      I can only hope that this actually does something.

        • CosmicTurtle@lemmy.worldEnglish
          10·
          1 year ago

          Oh you don’t need to tell me that. I’ve worked in a non-profit hospital as well.

          It’s just as shitty and they use that “non-profit” spin to tell you that you should be okay with getting paid less…

          FoR tHe PaTiEnTs

        • LaunchesKayaks@lemmy.world
          5·
          1 year ago

          I worked at a clinic that was “nonprofit” but couldn’t pay a living wage to anyone who wasn’t considered a big part of administration. iT director made 80k and the president of the company made 150k. The worst part is that everyone making bank had underlings doing their work for them. I know because I was one of those underlings