Business & Tech

Update: Kaiser Employees Will Stage One-Day Strike

Strike could involve 22,000 or more Kaiser employees throughout Northern California

Update from Kaiser Permanente's media office 3:15 p.m. :

Regionwide, more than 66 percent or two-thirds of our nurses put their patients first and came to work this morning, rejecting the call from CNA to deliberately disrupt patient care for the second time in four months.  

The unions claim that approximately 21,000 KP employees--including 17,000 nurses--walked off the job today, but that isn't true. The reality is that over a typical 24-hour period, we have about 4,500 nurses working at Kaiser Permanente’s 21 medical centers throughout Northern California. Today, about 2,000 KP day-shift nurses were scheduled to work throughout the region, and we are pleased that so many of them made the decision to continue providing our patients with high-quality personalized health care and to honor their contract.

From Gay Westfall, Senior Vice President, Human Resources,
Kaiser Foundation Hospitals and Health Plan

Our first priority is always the safety and care of our members and patients.  

We are prepared for this work stoppage, and we will continue to provide our members and patients with high-quality health care and service from a fully staffed team. We want our members and patients to know that all Kaiser Permanente hospitals and medical offices throughout Northern California will remain open during this one-day strike.

Kaiser Permanente Northern California has been bargaining in good faith with NUHW for more than a year, and we will continue to do so. We have made significant progress, and have 31 signed tentative agreements with each NUHW unit. The next step in this process has been in NUHW’s hands since last July. For more than six months, Kaiser Permanente has been waiting for a proposal from NUHW in response to KP’s first proposal on wages and benefits.

The union’s allegations that KP is proposing to eliminate retirement benefits are simply untrue. KP has demonstrated throughout its history that it is committed to providing its employees with highly desirable, market-leading salary and benefits. We will continue to provide highly competitive benefits—including those designed to help our employees enjoy a secure and healthy retirement.

We are disappointed in NUHW’s decision to strike. We recognize their legal right to conduct a strike, but believe differences are best resolved at the bargaining table.

We are disappointed and concerned that CNA is calling for yet another work stoppage by KP nurses even though they have a contract. We believe the union’s action, which creates risk for patients, is irresponsible and expressly prohibited in our contract with the nurses’ union, and we have taken legal action in court.

Statement from Don Mordecai, MD, Director of Mental Health and Chemical Dependency Services, Chair of the Chiefs of Psychiatry, The Permanente Medical Group, Kaiser Permanente Northern California

We provide timely, high-quality mental-health care services to our patients, day in and day out. The quality of our mental-health services has been recognized by the State of California’s Office of the Patient Advocate and by the National Committee for Quality Assurance. In fact, Kaiser Permanente is the only health plan to receive a 4-star rating for mental health care—the highest rating possible—in the Office of the Patient Advocate’s annual report card for managed-care plans in California.

This work stoppage is about labor issues related to contract negotiations and benefits proposals. We strongly disagree with anyone who may claim this is about issues related to quality.

Previously:

Kaiser Permanente workers throughout Northern California said today that they will stage a one-day strike on Tuesday in a dispute over a new contract for mental health and optical employees.

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The dispute involves 4,000 members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers, who have been bargaining for a new contract since 2010. Two other unions have agreed to walk out on Tuesday in a sympathy strike.

They are the California Nurses Association, which represents 17,000 nurses, and Stationary Engineers Local 39, which represents 650 building and equipment workers.

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The one-day strike could consequently involve a total of about 22,000 Kaiser employees across the region. The nurses' union said they will support the mental health and optical employees, who include technicians, clinical psychologists, licensed social workers and opticians.

The dispute involves wages, health care coverage, retirement benefits, patient care and staffing levels.

--Bay City News Service


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