Workers at 14 PA nursing homes went on strike for two weeks
After months of negotiations and a week of strikes against unfair labor practices, SEIU Healthcare PA announced that the union had reached tentative agreements.
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Nearly 64,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers in California, Oregon and Washington demanding better pay and increased staffing levels have authorized a strike if a new contract is not reached after their current contract expires on September 30.
The nurses, support staff and other health care workers who are part of the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West unions are ready to leave their jobs without a new contract. Approximately 98% of SEIU-UHW members in California approved a strike during a two-week vote.
In a separate vote also announced Thursday, 4,000 Kaiser workers in Oregon and Washington agreed to strike. Last week, Kaiser Permanente workers in Colorado approved a strike. Union members representing Kaiser workers in other states could authorize a strike. A total of 85,000 Kaiser health care workers in seven states are demanding new contracts.
Union officials said that unless a new deal is reached, it could be the largest health care workers’ strike ever in the United States.
“Kaiser leaders have refused to engage with frontline healthcare workers on most issues affecting the care of our patients,” Caroline Lucas, executive director of the Coalition for Kaiser Permanente Unions, said in a statement. “Kaiser executives have failed to speak up” about an economic proposal that would adequately address Kaiser’s workforce shortage crisis. In fact, the current position of Kaiser leaders will accelerate the staffing crisis that is having catastrophic consequences for patients in the Kaiser network.”
Unions want Kaiser to improve staffing levels, which have deteriorated during the COVID-19 pandemic, and meet wage and benefit needs, said Dave Regan, president of the SEIU-UHW.
The Kaiser unions are seeking a four-year contract with wage increases of 7% in the first two years and 6.25% in years three and four. Unions want workers to be entitled to an annual performance bonus equal to a percentage of their annual wages if targets are met. In recent years, employees have been entitled to bonuses of up to 3% of wages if all performance goals are met.
In a statement, Kaiser said it was proposing a minimum bonus payment “to protect our employees from not receiving a payout.” Rewards are based on performance metrics such as quality, patient safety and financial performance. Kaiser said it paid $276 million in premiums and another $800 million in housing and child care benefits, as well as paid COVID-19 medical and exposure leave over the last three years.
In addition, Kaiser said it is paying above-market wages and is proposing a minimum wage of $21 an hour and wage increases of 10% to 14% over four years.
“We have two more negotiating sessions scheduled for next week,” Kaiser said. “We are confident that before the national agreement expires on September 30, we will reach an agreement that strengthens our position as a best-in-class employer and ensures the high-quality care our members expect from us remains affordable and easily accessible.”
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Union strikes are increasing
Kaiser’s strike authorization comes at a time when unions representing workers in health care and other industries are increasingly asserting their power and demands.
In 2022, about 15,000 nurses in Minnesota have left their jobs to demand better pay and staffing, which they say is critical to improving patient care. Nurses at seven hospitals in the Minneapolis and Duluth metro areas stopped working Monday as the hospitals hired temporary nurses to maintain most services during the three-day strike.
A contract between the United Auto Workers, which represents 146,000 workers, and the three major automakers – General Motors, Ford and Stellantis – expires tonight at 11:59 p.m. According to the union, without a new contract there could be targeted strikes in the car manufacturers’ factories.
Last month, UPS and the Teamsters union, which represents more than 300,000 rank-and-file UPS workers, ratified a five-year contract, narrowly avoiding a large-scale strike that could have disrupted package shipping across the country. Hollywood screenwriters have been on strike since May and a guild representing actors has been on strike since mid-July.
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Kaiser Unions: Improve staffing, pay
Kaiser and the unions formed a working partnership about 25 years ago after controversial negotiations and disputes in the 1980s and 1990s with the aim of making negotiations smoother. That partnership worked well for years, Regan said, but frontline workers say the partnership has deteriorated over the last five years.
The union proposed assessing annual bonuses for managers and frontline workers using similar criteria. Last year, managers received bonuses but front-line employees did not, Regan said.
On Labor Day, nearly two dozen union members were arrested and released after a march and protest that ended in front of Kaiser Permanente Hospital in Hollywood, California. The union members drew attention to what they considered to be unsafe staffing levels.
Datosha Williams is a nonclinical customer service representative for Kaiser Permanente in Gardena, south of Los Angeles. Williams, who also serves on the union’s national bargaining team, said her colleagues are frustrated by staffing levels that they say are unsafe for workers and patients.
Williams said COVID-19 has “shone a lot of light on a long-standing health care workforce crisis” that has been exacerbated by the pandemic.
“Nurses are doing the work of two or three people and are unable to truly provide patients with the care they deserve,” Williams said.
Ken Alltucker is on X, formerly Twitter, at @kalltucker or can be emailed to [email protected].