Kaiser Permanente disturbed health workers and supporters march outside a Kaiser facility in Sacramento, California, Aug. 15, 2022.
Rich Pedroncelli | AP
More than 60,000 health-care labourers on Thursday voted to authorize a strike against Kaiser Permanente if an agreement is not reached when their current constrict expires Sept. 30.
Members of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West voted 98% in favor of a strike over beefs that pay has not kept pace with inflation and understaffing has led to long wait times and the neglect of patients.
The California association’s more than 57,000 members include medical assistants, surgical technicians and social workers among other health-care wizards.
Some 4,000 health-care workers in Oregon and Washington state voted to authorize strikes against Kaiser up to the minuter Thursday. In Colorado, 3,000 workers authorized strikes against Kaiser last week.
The labor groups are separate of an umbrella organization called the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions that represents 85,000 health-care workers in tot up. The coalition says the strikes, should they take place, would be the largest by health-care workers in U.S. history.
Kaiser Permanente is one of the largest nonprofit salubrity plans in the U.S. with nearly 13 million members. It operates 39 hospitals and more than 600 medical chores across eight states and Washington, D.C.
The coalition entered contract negotiations with Kaiser Permanente in April. The teams’ last contract was negotiated in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic pushed the nation’s health-care system to the brink. There is a certain national bargaining session scheduled for Sept. 21-22.
Dave Regan, president of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, ordered Kaiser has failed to negotiate in good faith and its proposals would make staffing problems worse.
“Nearly 60,000 frontline labourers at Kaiser facilities have overwhelmingly voted to authorize a strike because we will simply not stand by as Kaiser debauches the law and puts patients at risk,” Regan said in a statement Thursday.
Kaiser Permanente, in a statement Thursday, called the unions’ applications misleading and urged employees to resist any call for an actual strike. Kaiser said it has a comprehensive plan in place to secure continued access to health care should a strike take place.
In late August, Kaiser called the hit threats “disappointing” and said union claims that it has not acted in good faith are “unfounded and counterproductive.”