A week after tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente employees across the country staged a three-day walkout demanding higher wages and more robust staffing, the unions representing them warned on Tuesday of a longer strike early next month if upcoming negotiations with the company prove unsuccessful.
The next bargaining sessions are scheduled for later this week, with Julie Su, the acting U.S. secretary of labor, expected to mediate, according to the union coalition representing Kaiser employees. Anything short of a fair deal will result in a subsequent strike starting on Nov. 1 and lasting until Nov. 8, coalition representatives told KQED.
“If we don’t stand up for our work, they’re going to continue treating us the way they are treating us,” said Drenda Sims, a receptionist in the OB-GYN department at Kaiser’s Oakland facility.
Sims participated in last week’s walkout, which marked the largest health care worker strike in U.S. history. And like many of her colleagues, she said she hopes another strike will be averted, but is prepared to join the picket line again if necessary.
“It’s not a good feeling,” she said. “But it’s for the cause.”
The labor coalition, comprised of chapters of the Service Employees International Union and the Office and Professional Employees International Union, represent a wide range of Kaiser frontline workers, including respiratory therapists, X-ray technicians, behavioral health workers and pharmacists, among many other positions. Doctors and nurses, however, are not involved.
Coalition officials say limiting how much Kaiser can outsource and subcontract workers remains a major sticking point in the ongoing negotiations with the massive health care provider.
“The critical issues that are outstanding really are still a long-term comprehensive solution to the Kaiser short-staffing crisis,” Caroline Lucas, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, told KQED on Tuesday, arguing that simply outsourcing the work, as she says Kaiser has considered, is not a remedy. “We need common sense limitations on subcontracting and outsourcing.”
Last week’s strike included nearly 75,000 Kaiser workers from facilities in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Virginia and Washington, D.C. The majority of the strikers were located in California, with some 23,000 joining picket lines in the Bay Area alone.
