Kaiser Permanente nurses and health care professionals in San Diego County are expected to be part of a 31,000-person unfair labor practices strike at facilities in California and Hawaii starting Monday.
Members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals and promise to stay out until a fair contract agreement is reached.
The strike was set to begin at 7 a.m. Monday.
“We’re not going on strike to make noise,” said Charmaine S. Morales, RN, President of UNAC/UHCP. “We’re striking because Kaiser has committed serious unfair labor practices and because Kaiser refuses to bargain in good faith over staffing that protects patients, workload standards that stop moral injury, and the respect and dignity that Kaiser caregivers have been denied for far too long.
“Striking is the lawful power of working people, and we are prepared to use it on behalf of our profession and patients,” Morales said.
Workers on the picket lines will focus on the what they say is a growing crisis caused by Kaiser’s failure to invest in safe staffing levels, timely access to quality care and fair wages for frontline caregivers.
The union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Kaiser with the National Labor Relations Board alleging the company walked away from the bargaining table in December and has attempted to bypass the agreed-upon national bargaining process. The union had been bargaining with Kaiser since last May.