Nurses Strike Kaiser Permanente

Kaiser tells a different story. The hospital behemoth claims that its California wage proposal is “the strongest compensation package” in its national bargaining history and has launched a lawsuit in the Central District of California. Kaiser’s lawsuit does not address staffing levels.

Instead, it focuses on another issue that impacts the power of nationwide collective bargaining. Kaiser seeks to bargain directly with individual unions rather than Alliance. It looks like a classic “divide and conquer” move to some observers.
Healthcare is not a story with just two sides. It has far more than that.

“Kaiser, Kaiser, you can’t hide. We can see your greedy side”

Picket lines stretched across nearly 20 Kaiser hospitals and more than 200 clinics, stretching from Los Angeles to San Diego, Oakland to Honolulu. Kaiser is the nation’s largest not-for-profit medical provider.

The strike follows Alliance’s release of a new report examining Kaiser’s financial practices. The report focuses on billions of dollars in financial reserves and investments at Kaiser, while frontline workers and patients continue to experience chronic understaffing and delayed access to care.

The healthcare workers have requested raises totaling 25 percent over four years. They argue that the increase is necessary to compensate them for the far smaller increases they received in their 2021 contract negotiations, when they received a 2 percent raise in the first year. Kaiser has offered a 21.5 percent increase over four years.

Alliance claims that California healthcare workers have effectively experienced a wage decrease because Kaiser’s wage proposal does not keep pace with rising costs of housing, food, and health care in California.

Low pay makes for retention challenges, and that ultimately affects patient care, causing care delays, an increased risk of errors, and widespread burnout across clinical roles. Poor pay, excessive staff turnover, and an exhausted medical staff can be deadly for a patient in the waiting room with chest pains.

Kaiser’s side

In its lawsuit, Kaiser alleges that their employees already make more than their competitors. The lawsuit does not address staffing issues but characterizes the strike as being solely about wages. It claims that “the total pay increase we are offering, including step increases, amounts to roughly 30 percent over the length of the contract, not including proposed benefits enhancements.

Kaiser describes Alliance’s report about the hospital network’s finances as inflammatory, and a deliberate effort to derail negotiations. That’s the local California aspect of the story.

Kaiser’s divide and conquer strategy

Kaiser looks to free itself from a pre-existing practice of negotiating with Alliance. It seeks instead to negotiate with individual collective bargaining units. That’s the national aspect of the story.

The negotiating strength of a labor organization, like the Alliance, comes, in part, from its size and the commitment of its members to bargain collectively. Fracturing that national collective strength looks like union busting to some.

The struggle – to date

According to Fox 11, picket lines continue at Kaiser hospitals and clinics across Northern, Central, and Southern California and Hawaii. Major hubs reportedly include:

• Los Angeles/Orange County: Los Angeles Medical Center (Sunset Blvd), Anaheim, Irvine, Downey, and South Bay Medical Centers.
• Inland Empire: Riverside, Fontana, and Ontario Medical Centers.
• San Diego: Zion, San Diego, and San Marcos Medical Centers.
• Northern California/Central: Oakland, Roseville, Santa Clara, and Bakersfield locations. Kaiser has reportedly recently resumed negotiations with workers in Northern California and has agreed to restart talks with other California unions.

Nurses at three major New York City hospital systems — Mount Sinai, Montefiore and New York-Presbyterian have already struck in what might be the largest nurses’ strike in the city’s history.

On February 2, several UFCW local unions (who are members of the Alliance) issued a new 10-day strike notice, with pharmacy and laboratory workers joining picket lines.

According to Fox, “the strike remains “open-ended,” with no scheduled end date.” The situation is likely to intensify on February 9, when pharmacy and laboratory workers represented by the UFCW are scheduled to walk out in a show of solidarity. 

Limping along

Kaiser states that its facilities remain “fully operational” through the use of temporary contract professionals and managers. According to Alliance, some in-person appointments may be shifted to virtual sessions, and some elective surgeries and procedures may be rescheduled.