OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — The union coalition representing thousands of health care workers who went on strike for three days last week says that its workers may go on strike again if no deal is reached with Kaiser Permanente.
Kaiser executives received notice Monday that employees may walk out of clinics across seven states and the District of Columbia for one week starting Nov. 1 if negotiations with the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions are not fruitful.
At issue are employees’ desire for higher pay amid a nationwide increase in costs of living, along with demands for the health care giant to improve staffing levels and stop outsourcing work. The union coalition said in a new statement that outsourcing is a major sticking point in negotiations because Kaiser executives have refused to agree to limitations on subcontracting and outsourcing to ensure continuity of care for patients.
“For months, Kaiser executives failed to listen to the feedback from frontline health care workers about the need for executives to follow the law in negotiations and about the impacts that the Kaiser short-staffing is having on patients,” said Caroline Lucas, the coalition's executive director. “This week, Kaiser executives will have another opportunity to listen to frontline staff, to follow the law in formal discussion and to begin investing in ways that will solve the Kaiser short-staffing crisis.”
Tamara Chew, a health care plan representative for Kaiser Permanente in Roseville, California, also blasted outsourcing. "It’s simple: Kaiser executives need to be investing in health care workers right now amid this short staffing crisis, not discarding them through a variety of expensive outsourcing schemes,” she said. “I can’t understand why anyone in the Kaiser boardroom thinks corporate outsourcing threats are the way to treat a workforce that just a short time ago were being hailed as heroes.”
The coalition said that a strike action could take place if a Seattle contract covering union workers expires Oct. 31 without a resolution with Kaiser. That would bring 3,000 more health care workers to the strike lines, joining those who already walked out in southern Washington. Seattle is one of Kaiser’s emerging markets and has been targeted by the company for future corporate growth, the coalition added.
Kaiser representatives kept clinics open during the strike action last week, warning that patients could experience even longer wait times. Wayne Davis, media relations coordinator for Kaiser, said in a statement Tuesday that the company will meet to bargain with the coalition again on Thursday and Friday.
"Kaiser Permanente remains committed to reaching an agreement that is good for our employees, our members, and our organization, and we will continue to bargain in good faith with the Coalition," Davis said.
Any strike beginning in November would last until Nov. 8, the coalition said.
Kaiser Permanente, a large insurer and health care system operator, serves about 13 million people. Despite being a nonprofit organization that pays no income taxes on earnings and limited property taxes, Kaiser has reported more than $24 billion in profit over the last five years. The company has investments of $113 billion in the U.S. and abroad, including in fossil fuels, casinos and for-profit prisons.
The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions represents 85,000 Kaiser health care workers in 11 unions. The unions claim staffing levels have dipped and cause dangerously long wait times, mistaken diagnoses and rushed in-person care.
The coalition and Kaiser Permanente last negotiated a contract in 2019 before the Covid-19 pandemic. In September, coalition unions gave Kaiser executives 10-day notices for a three-day unfair labor practice strike beginning Oct. 4, which became the largest strike of health care workers in U.S. history.
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