More than 100 mental health therapists, social workers and psychologists at Kaiser Permanente in Santa Rosa are scheduled to wage a one-day strike later this month.
Their union, National Union of Healthcare Workers, said it is striking in protest of Kaiser’s deployment of new technology aimed at replacing workers, diminishing patient care standards, according to the group.
The therapists’ contract expired in September. NUHW said both sides remain far apart, with Kaiser looking to outsource jobs and replace therapist jobs with artificial intelligence, according to the union.
Natalie Rogers, a Kaiser Permanente marriage and family therapist and Santa Rosa City Council member, said new technologies like artificial intelligence should be used to support the work of clinicians, not replace them.
“Kaiser wants full autonomy to lay off therapists in order to outsource mental health workers. We are fully against that,” Rogers said.
The union represents 115 behavioral health workers in Sonoma County. Earlier this year, union members voted 92% in favor of a strike.
Lionel Sims, senior vice president of human resources for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, said Kaiser’s labor contract proposals were aimed at ensuring timely access for patients while supporting the work of mental health staff.
“We are disappointed that NUHW leadership has chosen to call on their members to walk away from patients for a day while we are still at the bargaining table and actively working toward an agreement,” Sims said in a press statement.
Sims accused the union of pushing a “false narrative” that Kaiser is trying to replace mental health staff with AI. He said Kaiser is not using AI to replace “human assessment,” nor is it using it to make health care decisions.
“Our care teams are always at the center of decision-making with our patients,” Sims said.
The 24-hour strike is scheduled to start Wednesday, March 18, and wrap up by the following morning. Picketing in Santa Rosa, Fresno and Santa Clara will begin at 8 a.m. Picketing in Oakland and Sacramento will begin at 6 a.m., the union said.
Overall, the union represents about 2,400 mental health therapists, social workers and psychologists in the Bay Area, Central Valley and the Sacramento area.
Last summer, NUHW filed an unfair labor practice complaint against Kaiser, Northern California’s dominant health care provider. In the complaint, the union alleges the provider unilaterally overhauled its system for triaging patients seeking mental health services.
According to the complaint, the new triage system “illegally assigns unlicensed and untrained clerical staff to triage Kaiser enrollees with mental health and substance use disorders.”
The union said the new practice exposes thousands of Kaiser members with mental health and substance-use disorders to serious health and safety risks, as well as treatment delays.
Sims said in his statement that Kaiser’s objective is to reach an agreement that both “honors our clinicians and allows space for the potential of technology that can support them and help our members.”
He said that many AI tools can potentially help Kaiser staff spend more time serving members and patients.
You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.