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Just three months after their last strike, more than 120 Kaiser Permanente medical workers in Santa Rosa are once again expected to indefinitely walk off the job next week as part of sweeping strike involving Kaiser workers across California and Hawaii.
The planned stoppage stems from a labor dispute between Kaiser and the United Nurses Association of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, affecting some 31,000 workers at nearly 20 hospitals and 200 clinics in the two states.
In Northern California, the union represents 2,800 workers, including registered nurses, physician assistants, nurse anesthetists and acupuncturists. Negotiations between the union and Kaiser have been stalled since late last year.
The union accuses Kaiser of prioritizing its financial holdings, private investments and executive pay over staffing shortages and fair pay. For their part, Kaiser officials say they’re proposing a significant boost to already generous employee compensation.
The union’s contract with Kaiser expired Sept. 30, and the union carried out a 5-day strike in October.
Brian Mason, the union’s chief negotiator in Northern California, said the indeterminate length of the planned strike reflects the severity of the breakdown in negotiations. Mason said safe and adequate staffing levels are among the key issues.
“Kaiser has been double and triple booking patients with one provider,” he said. “That’s delaying care and access to care…certified registered nurse anesthetists have a massive amount of turnover, and Kaiser isn’t addressing that.”
Mason said Kaiser wants to eliminate workers’ retirement plan and reduce pensions and health care benefits to punish them for recently unionizing. The union represents certified nurse midwives, certified registered nurse anesthetists and physician assistants.
“We are on a strike until we reach an agreement,” Mason said.
A Kaiser official said plans are in place “to ensure our members and patients continue to receive safe, high-quality care.”
“We hope our UNAC/UHCP represented employees will choose not to strike so we can resolve our differences at the bargaining table,” said Lionel Sims, senior vice president of human resources for Kaiser Permanente Northern California.
The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, UNAC/UHCP, is part of the Alliance of Health Care Unions, a federation of 21 local unions representing more than 60,000 Kaiser employees.
Sims said in a statement the health care giant is trying to balance fair compensation and quality care during unstable times for hospitals and the health care industry in general.
“These negotiations come at a time when health care costs are rising, and millions of Americans are at risk of losing access to health coverage,” Sims said. “This underscores our responsibility to deliver fair, competitive pay for employees while protecting access and affordability for our members. We’re doing both.”
Sims said “Alliance employees” at Kaiser earn, on average, about 16% to 24% more than counterparts at other providers, depending on the market. Kaiser’s current proposal calls for a 21.5% wage increase over the life of the 4-year contract, with the largest share of the bump, 16%, frontloaded over first 2 years, he said. The total increase will be about 30% when step increases and local adjustments are factored in.
“This proposal represents a significant investment — nearly $2 billion in additional payroll costs — while maintaining affordability for our members and customers,” Sims said in his statement.
Sims said there’s been no “material movement” in negotiations since Dec. 14, when Kaiser paused national bargaining following “an incident” involving a UNAC/UHCP representative. Kaiser said the union threatened to release information that would be damaging to Kaiser’s reputation if it did not agree to labor demands.
Greg Holmes, Kaiser’s chief human resources officer, in a Dec. 18 video, said “illegal threats are a line that cannot be crossed. Holmes said the union official’s actions effectively “compromised the national bargaining process and undermined both parties’ ability to continue good faith bargaining.”
The union recently released a report it says documents the provider’s “billions of dollars in reserves and questionable financial investments,” even as patients are impacted by delayed care caused by chronic understaffing.
The report says Kaiser generated “massive profits” of nearly $13 billion in 2024 in net income and hoarding $66 billion in unrestricted reserves, while patient premiums have increased every year.
The report also accuses Kaiser of bloated executive pay.
“Instead of reinvesting in patient care or stabilizing its workforce, Kaiser invests in foreign entities with hedge funds, private equity groups, and Russian nationals.,” the report states. “This includes companies like CoreCivic and the GEO Group, which run ICE detention centers and provide health care and living conditions so substandard they border on criminal.”
Sims dismissed the report, calling it a “collection of misrepresentations of facts across a broad range of issues, already published news stories, and information we have publicly reported.”
Mason the union is striking because Kaiser is refusing to restart bargaining. “They’re more concerned about profits that they are in patients,” he said. “They’re buying up other health systems but they’re not doing anything to fix the access to care here in California.”
Charmaine S. Morales, a registered nurse and the union president, said in a statement that Kaiser can end the dispute whenever they decide to “come back to the table” and resume bargaining.
“We’re authorizing a strike to win staffing that protects patients, win workload standards that stop moral injury, and win the respect and dignity Kaiser has denied for far too long,” Charmaine S. Morales, RN, the union president, said in a statement.
You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.