Kaiser Permanente and union representatives pledged to continue negotiating a new contract up until the last minute as the threat of the nation鈥檚 latest large-scale strike looms next month.
Unless a deal is struck, more than 75,000 health workers will walk out for three days from , disrupting care for KP patients in California, Colorado, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Washington, D.C. The unions represent a wide range of KP health workers, including lab technicians, phlebotomists, pharmacists, optometrists, social workers, orderlies, and support staff.
A strike, if it occurs, would affect most of Kaiser Permanente鈥檚 across the U.S., and would disrupt care for many of its nearly 13 million patients. If workers walk off their jobs, 鈥渋t will start to impact patient care right away,鈥 said John August, at Cornell University鈥檚 Scheinman Institute on Conflict Resolution, who is a former head of the union coalition currently negotiating with KP.
鈥淵ou are immediately subject to problems with not being able to get patients in and out of the hospital. You risk problems with infection control. You鈥檙e not going to get meals,鈥 August said.
Arlene Peasnall, Kaiser Permanente鈥檚 senior vice president for human resources, said the Oakland, California-based health care giant’s goal is 鈥渢o reach a mutually beneficial agreement before any work stoppage occurs.鈥 But she also said the nonprofit has plans in place to blunt the impact of a walkout.
鈥淲e will be bargaining with Kaiser up until the day we go on strike,鈥 said Caroline Lucas, executive director of the , which represents about 40% of KP鈥檚 workforce. 鈥淥ur front-line health care workers are fed up, and we really need Kaiser executives to seize the initiative and move forward on resolving the contract.鈥
The current contract expires Sept. 30 and, after months of talks, the two sides still disagree over pay and staffing. The coalition wants a $25-an-hour minimum wage across the company. KP executives agree there should be an organization-wide floor, but they鈥檝e proposed $21.
KP prefers varying wage increases across regions, since the cost of living can vary sharply. The coalition, which is pushing for uniform wage increases across all regions, contends that management鈥檚 proposal is part of a 鈥.鈥 Peasnall said the union鈥檚 stance 鈥渨ould prevent us from addressing fair market wages where we need to pay more to attract and retain the best people.鈥
The unions say their lowest-paid workers can barely make ends meet in the face of soaring prices for food, gasoline, and other essentials. And, they say, KP hospitals and clinics are severely understaffed, forcing workers to put in long hours and fill multiple roles. They argue that management is not moving quickly enough to fill positions and that the quality of care has suffered as patients, some with serious illnesses, often wait months for appointments, face extremely long waits in the emergency room, and experience delays in hospital admissions.
An industrywide labor shortage hangs heavily over the contract talks. The pandemic was particularly brutal for health care workers who often worked long hours in grueling conditions, as colleagues fell ill, died, or quit. Workers say many of the positions that became vacant during the pandemic still have not been filled.
Miriam De La Paz, a secretary in the labor and delivery department of KP鈥檚 Downey Medical Center in Southern California and a union steward, said when she is alone on a shift, she is responsible for two labor and delivery stations as well as triage, where patients are prioritized based on the acuity of their cases.
鈥淚magine if I鈥檓 putting this baby in the system and your wife shows up in pain, crying, but I鈥檓 not there to register her,鈥 De La Paz said. 鈥淚 can鈥檛 break myself in two.鈥
Unions want KP to invest more in education, training, and recruitment to fill current openings and create a pipeline of future workers. KP says it is doing so.
Peasnall said KP has already filled more than 9,700 out of 10,000 new coalition-represented jobs the two sides had agreed to create this year. And she said KP鈥檚 turnover rate is one-third the industry rate, in part because of 鈥渆xcellent pay and benefits.鈥
Earlier this month, California lawmakers passed legislation to gradually for health care workers in the state to $25 an hour. If Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom signs the bill into law, KP will have to comply. And nearly 80% of workers represented by the coalition in the current contract talks are in California.
On Sept. 22, as bargaining continued in San Francisco, the unions announced that more than 75,000 of the 85,000 workers they represent would stage the three-day walkout if there鈥檚 no deal. Federal law requires of strikes at health care facilities. The coalition said it is “prepared to engage in another longer, stronger strike in November,鈥 if no agreement is reached by then.
A coalition spokesperson, Betsy Twitchell, said workers would welcome the Biden administration鈥檚 involvement in the talks 鈥渂ecause of the importance of these negotiations to millions of patients and 75,000 frontline healthcare workers.鈥
The unions say KP can afford to be more generous, citing its robust financial health.
Although KP reported a net in 2022, it generated a of nearly $22 billion over the three preceding years 鈥 both results driven largely by investment performance. In the first half of this year, KP posted profits of over $3 billion. And it is in a strong position to manage its debt, according to a report earlier this year by Fitch Ratings.
The unions note that Kaiser Permanente鈥檚 CEO, Greg Adams, in compensation in 2021 and that dozens of others in KP management made more than $1 million, according to a KP filing with the IRS.
Peasnall said the compensation of KP鈥檚 senior management is less than that of their peers at other health care companies.
A KP walkout would be the latest in a string of worker movements. Strikes have hit Hollywood, hotels, auto manufacturers, and other industries. Public approval of unions is at a , according to a Gallup Poll released in August 2022.
Health workers are increasingly engaged, too. Several hospital groups have been hit by strikes, including in Los Angeles and numerous facilities in Northern California, as well as health care organizations in .
鈥淭here is an atmosphere in the country: It鈥檚 labor summer, it鈥檚 strike summer, it鈥檚 all that,鈥 August said. 鈥淭hat definitely has an influence on union leadership that says, 鈥榃e need to be a part of that.鈥欌
This article was produced by 蘑菇影院 Health News, which publishes , an editorially independent service of the .听
