SAN DIEGO (FOX 5\/KUSI) \u2014 Tens of thousands of healthcare workers with Kaiser Permanente are set to begin a five-day strike Tuesday morning.\u00a0<\/p>\n
That includes more than 3,000 workers in the San Diego region who say they are fighting for better pay and staffing levels.<\/p>\n
Kaiser and United Nurses Association of California\/Union of Healthcare Professionals\u00a0are expecting that more than 40,000 workers could strike across California and also in Hawaii and Oregon.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt has come to this. It\u2019s not our goal to have obviously a strike, but is our way of saying enough is enough,\u201d said Nikki Avey, Labor and Delivery Registered Nurse and also president of the San Diego affiliate of UNAC\/UHCP.<\/p>\n
UNAC\/UHCP\u00a0represents registered nurses, pharmacists, midwives, physician assistants and other specialty healthcare professionals.<\/p>\n
However, there have been other Kaiser strikes in recent history.<\/p>\n
\u201cSupport staff a couple years ago. We had our mental healthcare workers just recently on strike. So it\u2019s a theme these days that I guess we have to withhold our labor to really have a voice and to get what we need and deserve,\u201d Avey said.<\/p>\n
UNAC\/UHCP and Kaiser have been at the negotiating table for months. Avey says the biggest grievances with staffing levels ultimately affect patient care.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat we have these nurse-patient ratios in our contract, and they are just not following them every day,\u201d Avey said.<\/p>\n
Meantime a lengthy statement from Kaiser Permanente claims wages are at the heart of the ongoing contract dispute.<\/p>\n
Kaiser says these employees already early 16% more than their peers in the industry, but are offering an additional 21.5% increase over a four-year contract along with better medical and retirement benefits.<\/p>\n
Kaiser says the 25% raise the union is seeking would ultimately lead to higher rates for members and customers.<\/p>\n
This five-day strike will be the largest in UNAC\/UHCP\u2019s 50-year history.<\/p>\n
The strike starts Tuesday at 7 a.m. The union says it\u2019s always ready to meet and bargain, but right now there are no dates set.<\/p>\n
Meantime, thousands of nurses and healthcare workers with Sharp Healthcare will begin an informational picket this Wednesday amid their own ongoing contract bargaining.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN DIEGO (FOX 5\/KUSI) \u2014 Tens of thousands of healthcare workers with Kaiser Permanente are set to begin…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":3272,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[23,74,76,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-3271","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-san-diego","8":"tag-local-news","9":"tag-san-diego","10":"tag-san-diego-headlines","11":"tag-san-diego-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271","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=3271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3272"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}