They were on the street Tuesday morning, packed onto the sidewalk in front of Kaiser San Diego Medical Center in Kearny Mesa, reveling in the first few hours of a five-day strike.
It was a scene that unfolded in front of Kaiser hospitals across the state, and also in Hawaii and Oregon, as health care workers put pressure on their employer to improve its contract offer, forcing the health care system to hire replacement workers and disrupt the schedules of members.
Though Kaiser has not said how many non-emergency appointments it has had to reschedule this week, the organization did reach out to its members Monday evening, notifying more than 600,000 members in San Diego County — 9.5 million across California — that it “may need to reschedule some nonurgent appointments, surgeries and procedures” during the strike.
Hospitals and especially emergency departments remain open despite an estimated 31,000 nurses and other types of caregivers walking off their jobs and picking up picket signs. The messages on those signs focused on patient care and safety, eliciting honks from passing vehicles Tuesday morning, though Kaiser has worked to make it clear to the public that wages are also part of the reason why the strike happened.
Kaiser says it has offered striking workers pay increases of 21.5% over the next four years, indicating that union members are demanding 25%.
Workers on the picket line in front of San Diego Medical Center on Tuesday morning were emphatic that the decision to walk a picket line rather than the halls of their hospital was about far more than money.
Registered emergency department nurse Sal Silva said that he and his colleagues are fed up with staffing levels that bleed into home life.
“It’s easy to focus on economics and use that as the story that sells well, but the reality on the ground is that I have to work 16-hour shifts like three or four days a week,” Silva said. “I have a wife and kids. I don’t want to be here that many hours.
“That over time, over the long term, you know, it hurts your family, it hurts everybody, honestly.”
Sandy Early, a registered nurse in the intensive care unit at San Diego Medical Center, said she recently sustained a neck injury at work that put her on temporary workers’ compensation. She attributes the injury to a lack of adequate staffing, especially to the workers who back up bedside nurses.
“People are getting hurt because there’s not enough bodies in there,” Early said. “This is not just about money. I’m a patient and a Kaiser member, too.
“I wait in line. I have delays. It takes me months to get in to see a physician because of short staffing and inability to get people in.”
Kaiser workers will not be the only ones demonstrating this week. Sharp HealthCare workers represented by the same coalition of unions will picket from Wednesday through Friday. The demonstration, however, is not a strike. Workers will demonstrate on their own time, but will not walk off their jobs, meaning that patient appointments should not be affected.
Originally Published: October 14, 2025 at 11:44 AM PDT