{"id":155997,"date":"2026-01-30T03:40:11","date_gmt":"2026-01-30T03:40:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/155997\/"},"modified":"2026-01-30T03:40:11","modified_gmt":"2026-01-30T03:40:11","slug":"kaiser-permanente-workers-speak-on-4th-day-of-strike-in-bakersfield","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/155997\/","title":{"rendered":"Kaiser Permanente workers speak on 4th day of strike in Bakersfield"},"content":{"rendered":"

BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 On day four of the Kaiser Permanente health care worker strike, employees and the company aren\u2019t any closer to reaching an agreement.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe facts are that quality is not in dispute. Staffing is not in dispute. What\u2019s in dispute are the wages. Plain and simple, we\u2019ve offered a very fair agreement, a fair proposal, to our nurses and to our alliance represented unions,\u201d said Camille Applin-Jones, Senior Vice President for Kaiser Permanente of Southern California.<\/p>\n

Across California and Hawaii, 31,000 Kaiser employees have taken to the picket lines. Here in Bakersfield, dozens of employees are on the march outside Kaiser\u2019s Stockdale Highway office.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaiser wants to emphasize that it\u2019s all about money, but that\u2019s not the truth. The truth is that we want safe ratios. We want to be able to have their access for our patients, so they can get the care that they deserve and that we don\u2019t require moral injury at the end of shifts and feeling like we weren\u2019t able to provide the care that we want to for our patients,\u201d said Jennifer Aleman Ocampo, a physician\u2019s assistant at Kaiser.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s more than just wages, because this is a calling for us. This is what we do. This is what we enjoy doing. We would rather be in the clinic, in the hospital setting, taking care of patients,\u201d said Jorge Ortiz, a charge nurse for Kaiser.<\/p>\n

2 arrested targeted major retailers in dozens of thefts in Bakersfield: police <\/a><\/p>\n

Kaiser Executives disagreed.<\/p>\n

Senior Vice President for Kaiser\u2019s Southern California operations said Kaiser has already proposed a substantial raise.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe offer that\u2019s currently on the table is 21.5% over four years. What that means for the average nurse is that in the first two years, they\u2019ll receive a 16% increase that is not just fair wages, but those are highly competitive wages and industry leading. At the end of the four year contract, they will have received the 21.5%,\u201d Applin-Jones said.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s not just a raise, it\u2019s a career-changing benefit, says Applin-Jones.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome nurses will receive upwards of 30% increase in their total salary, and what that looks like in real life or real people, would be a difference in $161,000 on average of annual pay, compared to $211,000 by the end of the four year contract\u2026staggering,\u201d Applin-Jones added.<\/p>\n

With no agreement yet, there\u2019s no end it sight for the Kaiser worker\u2019s strike.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to KGET 17 News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) \u2014 On day four of the Kaiser Permanente health care worker strike, employees and the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":155998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[151,153,152,76418,81],"class_list":["post-155997","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield","tag-bakersfield-headlines","tag-bakersfield-news","tag-camille-applin-jones","tag-kaiser-permanente"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=155997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/155997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/155998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=155997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=155997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=155997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}