Business & Tech

Kaiser Permanente Employees Strike

For employees who work at Kaiser medical centers in Wildomar and Temecula, the Riverside-area picket line demonstrations were set to take place in Fontana.

Kaiser Permanente customers were advised of a three-day strike by the National Union of Health Care Workers that is taking place at medical centers throughout Southern California.

According to the notice, National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) represents about 2,500 employees out of 55,000 at Kaiser medical centers in Southern California.

For employees who work at and Temecula, the Riverside-area picket line demonstrations were set to take place in Fontana. In San Diego, demonstrations were set for at the Zion medical center.

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The strike was set to take place Wednesday through Friday, according to a notice sent to those covered by Kaiser.

NUHW represents psych-social workers, such as therapists, counselors, and psychologists, along with health care professionals, such as health educators, dietitians and speech therapists, who will strike for two days—Sept. 21 and 22, Kaiser stated.

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The union also represents nurses who work only at Kaiser's Los Angeles Medical Center hospital. The nurses plan to strike for three days—Sept. 21-23, the health care provider stated.

"As always, our first priority is the safety and care of our members and patients. We’ve taken steps to make sure you’ll continue to receive high-quality care from a team of experienced doctors and other clinicians during the strike.

The health care provider plans to keep its medical centers and medical offices will open during the work stoppage, including hospitals, emergency departments, urgent care departments, primary and specialty care departments, pharmacies and laboratories, according to the statement.

Kaiser Permanente advised that it is in negotiations with NUHW.

"We continue to negotiate in good faith to reach an agreement soon. While we recognize the NUHW’s legal right to conduct a strike, we believe the bargaining process is the best way to resolve our differences."

According to a statement on NUHW's website, "Despite enjoying record profits over the last two and a half years of over $5.7 billion, Kaiser administrators refuse to address workers’ concerns about chronic short staffing and its negative impacts on patient care, and continue to insist on implementing major reductions to workers’ healthcare coverage and retirement benefits."

NUHW stated that more than 17,000 registered nurses from California Nurses Assocation would also honor the strike to make it the "largest strike in Kaiser history."


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