Health care workers demonstrate outside one of the Kaiser Permanente hospitals in Los Angeles on the first day of the strike. CAROLINE BREHMAN (EFE)
Since this Wednesday at 6:00 a.m., thousands of employees in 39 hospitals in California have begun one of the largest health strikes in the United States. Some 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers have called for a 72-hour protest continuing in seven states to demand better conditions and benefits after the enormous sacrifices the pandemic has demanded of them. This is the first negotiation of their collective agreement after the health crisis. The demonstration adds to a year marked by several labor disputes in the transportation, entertainment and hospitality sectors.
Negotiations between Kaiser and the union began in April. Five months later, there is no agreement between the parties. Employee organizations are demanding, among other things, a salary increase of 27%, divided over the four years in which the collective agreement runs. The employer, one of the largest health care providers and one of the largest insurers in the United States with 13 million customers, had made a counteroffer of 16% and offered protections to avoid subcontracting. There was no agreement. “Kaiser has had a chaotic negotiating style driven by bad faith throughout the entire process,” leaders of the United Healthcare Workers of the West union, which represents about 85,000 employees, said Monday. Since that day, the union has not heard from the employers.
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Pickets were stationed outside dozens of hospitals this morning. These include, but are not limited to, nurses, health assistants, administrative staff, canteen and cleaning staff, laboratory technicians and opticians. Doctors are not part of this strike, but the impact of the protest is expected to affect services in dozens of centers. The union had given Kaiser ten days to change the appointments and assignments planned for this Wednesday. The strike lasts for three days, in addition to California, also in the states of Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Workers in Virginia and Washington DC will only do this for 24 hours.
“We demand an end to the workers’ crisis. We need more employees,” Rocío Chacón, an administrative employee, said on local television this morning. “Employees are tired of working 14 or 16 hours a day and having to sleep in their cars because they can’t afford the rent in Southern California,” said Chacón, who has served on the negotiating committee in recent weeks.
The union is calling for the minimum wage to be raised to $25, but Kaiser is offering between $21 and $25 depending on the worker’s location. They complain that hospitals do not have enough staff to deal with the situation. It is common for health workers such as doctors to double their shifts to care for around 20 patients. “In emergency rooms, people can wait up to three hours for an X-ray, whereas previously they had to wait 30 minutes. Patients with appointments can wait up to two hours before being treated. There is an economic crisis, but also a health crisis. I never thought I would see the problems of hospitals in my country here,” said Chacón, who is Mexican and has worked for the Kaiser Permanente system for more than 20 years.
The healthcare group ensures that its employees’ compensation is higher than that of its main competitors. According to Michelle Gaskill-Hames, president of Kaiser Permanente in Southern California and Hawaii, the sector faces the same challenges, although some of them have worsened during the pandemic. “I think that after the health crisis, many health workers suffered from burnout syndrome,” he said.
The hospital group posted net income of $2.1 billion and revenue of $25 billion in the second quarter. These are funded in part by health programs such as Medicaid, which are dependent on the federal government. According to Gaskill-Hames, Kaiser Permanente’s win rate is about 7%, a figure that is below the industry standard of about 21%. The spokesman confirmed that the centers were affected by increased costs due to inflation and labor shortages.
If there is no agreement these days, a new 72-hour strike will be called for November. The industry’s thousands of employees are also closely following a law awaiting signature by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. The local Congress recently passed a rule raising the minimum wage for health care workers to $25 an hour. If signed by the president, it would benefit 455,000 workers. Newsom has until Oct. 14 to sign it or veto it.