{"id":221294,"date":"2025-10-13T10:41:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:41:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/221294\/"},"modified":"2025-10-13T10:41:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-13T10:41:12","slug":"23-unions-plan-to-strike-together-if-kaiser-fails-to-address-workplace-crises","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/221294\/","title":{"rendered":"23 Unions Plan to Strike Together If Kaiser Fails to Address Workplace Crises"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\u201cOur patients deserve the best, not mediocrity.\u201d<\/p>\n

This phrase has been emblazoned across graphics on the social media feeds<\/a> of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP), an American Federation of Teachers affiliate, Local 5017<\/a>. The roughly 6,000 health care professionals of the OFNHP are locked in a contract fight with their employer, Kaiser Permanente, the sprawling health care consortium. The mediocrity in question is not that of the staffers themselves; instead, it warns of the impending consequences for staff and patients alike of the workplace stressors to which Kaiser\u2019s tens of thousands of doctors, nurses, technicians, and others are systematically subjected.<\/p>\n

In what has become an extended set of pitched battles with Kaiser management, the OFNHP has set out to address some of the most severe crises in nursing and health care \u2014 at Kaiser and elsewhere. Pressure from the rank-and-file to confront chronic understaffing, stagnating pay rates, and a loss of control over their schedules and work arrangements has driven the union to place these demands at the forefront in their return to contract bargaining this year.<\/p>\n

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But their struggle is not a lonely one, and it\u2019s far from confined to Kaiser\u2019s Northwest branch. The OFNHP is one of the 23 unions that together make up the Alliance of Health Care Unions<\/a> (AHU), a labor federation that comprises over 60,000 Kaiser workers<\/a> across California, Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Maryland, Colorado, Georgia, and Washington, D.C. A significant portion of the Alliance membership is bargaining as a single unit<\/a>, simultaneously negotiating for better wages and conditions at national and local levels. Strike action has been authorized<\/a>, and the countdown has begun: If management does not return to the table by October 14<\/a>, Kaiser Permanente will witness an enormous nationwide walkout of more than 40,000 employees.<\/p>\n

The amassing strains on staff, exacerbated by the obstinate bargaining position staked out by management, have led the AHU to play its final card. Should the strike go forward, the number of participants alone would make this one of the single largest labor actions of the year. It\u2019s telling that this year has seen a groundswell of nurses\u2019 strikes<\/a> and other health care actions<\/a> \u2014 a symptom of the widespread, deeply rooted and ever-worsening issues facing U.S. hospital staff, both at Kaiser and in countless medical facilities across the nation.<\/p>\n

Related Story<\/p>\n


\n \"Workers
\n <\/a><\/p>\n

\n Saddling an overworked staff with inadequate pay and resources \u200b\u200bthreatens employees and patients alike.\n <\/p>\n

Blood From a Stone<\/p>\n

The gouging-out of the U.S. frontline health care workforce<\/a> \u2014 in large part attributable to a combination of low pay, punishing hours, burnout, and exhaustion, along with the stresses and risks of COVID-19 \u2014 have led to severe strain on remaining employees<\/a> \u2014 which in turn intensifies turnover, perpetuating the cycle. At Kaiser Permanente, several of these unfortunate trends have amplified each other, and in this way have become mutually reinforcing.<\/p>\n

Back in 2021, to address similar grievances, the AHU had also voted to authorize a strike<\/a>; membership came to the brink of a walkout but called it off<\/a> the night before when management came back to the table. A new contract was won<\/a>, establishing a staffing committee to address shortages and stemming some of the most immediate concerns by securing a wage increase and blocking management\u2019s attempt to implement a \u201ctwo-tier\u201d system. But the structural issues remained unresolved, and wage gains that were won four years ago have been diluted by inflation. Now, as that contract is expiring, some Kaiser staff have asserted that, compared to 2021, the pressures on the workforce and the adversarial stance of management have significantly worsened.<\/p>\n

Kaiser has a largely unionized workforce, represented by the AHU as well as overlapping memberships like the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions<\/a>. The health care titan has operated for nearly three decades under a version of a labor-management partnership<\/a>. Initially implemented as a compromise to avoid a strike<\/a> in the late 1990s, the Kaiser conglomerate\u2019s unique partnership provides<\/a> notable concessions to labor, codifying organizing rights and benefits and securing unions a seat at the bargaining table. The central compromise on the part of labor is that, by alleviating these pressures, worker militancy and possible strike action is averted, neutralized before it can take root. In theory, this works to the benefit of all involved.<\/p>\n

Broadly, this arrangement is still in place \u2014 but sources say that the process has become decidedly less cooperative. Over many protestations, Kaiser administrators have continued to maintain practices that hospital employees have come to feel are absolutely untenable. That they\u2019ve gone so far as to call for a strike, the strongest possible measure, testifies to their feelings as to the absence of alternatives.<\/p>\n

Brenda Rowe is a histology technician at Kaiser and an OFNHP member in the technical bargaining unit, which comprises 33 different roles<\/a> \u2014 surgical and laboratory technicians, respiratory therapists, and so on. Her unit members have not yet seen their own particular contract expire and are therefore ineligible to join this strike. (One of their tertiary demands is to remedy this contract-timing misalignment so that all contracts are signed simultaneously.) Still, Rowe and her unit are actively involved in negotiations to settle terms for their renewal next year.<\/p>\n

Speaking to Truthout, Rowe emphatically shared that Kaiser technicians are proud to stand in solidarity with the strikers in their local counterpart bargaining units and with the multi-state AHU as a whole. Bargaining units are subdivisions of union membership<\/a>: in the OFNHP, they include groups for workers with advanced degrees (the \u201cPro\u201d unit), nurses at various tiers, Rowe\u2019s fellow technical staff, registered dental hygienists, and several others.<\/p>\n

Rowe explained how chronic staffing shortages<\/a> wreak havoc on the complex operations of a hospital. \u201cAll of our work is interconnected,\u201d she told Truthout. \u201cIt\u2019s all intertwined.\u2026 When the nurses can\u2019t step in and cover as much, then that puts more pressure on lab techs, who are dealing with staffing shortages themselves. It\u2019s a no-win situation.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to the union\u2019s charges of staffing shortages, Kaiser Permanente replied in a statement to Truthout:<\/p>\n

\u201cKaiser Permanente meets\u2014and often exceeds\u2014mandated nurse-to-patient ratios and staffing standards. We continue to hire, adding over 6,300 new employees in 2024, including nearly 4,700 in care delivery and more than 1,600 in Alliance-represented roles. \u201c<\/p>\n

Neoma Palmer is a physical therapist with a sports-clinic specialty who has been employed at Kaiser for 12 years, largely in outpatient physical therapy. She\u2019s also an OFNHP shop steward, a labor partner (a liaison and support role unique to Kaiser), and, like Rowe, a volunteer on her respective bargaining team. On a call with Truthout, Palmer explained that, \u201cThere\u2019s short staffing everywhere, and it\u2019s just been getting worse. We\u2019re seeing, ever since the end of June, that management started to not replace open positions.\u201d Palmer said that as many as \u201chundreds of jobs\u201d might remain unfilled.<\/p>\n

The void of new hiring, along with the first-year attrition rates, are at the same time both symptoms and catalysts of the understaffing crisis. This is also the case for the increasing workloads and stagnant wages that tend to disincline new job seekers, to say nothing of top talent. A large AHU survey<\/a> of the workforce found that a full 95 percent of respondents felt \u201cKaiser\u2019s staffing crisis is affecting patient care and access,\u201d while over 90 percent worked in short-staffed departments. According to Palmer, \u201cIn the past two decades, we\u2019ve increased our membership in the Northwest by 400 percent.\u201d And yet, in many areas \u2014 for example, she says, at the outpatient rehab \u2014 the level of staffing \u201chas stayed exactly the same. When you have to be 400 percent more productive \u2026 it\u2019s just not possible.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaiser staff have also been constrained in their ability to participate in the creation of their work schedules (often called \u201cschedule templates\u201d). Management has backed away from what was once a more collaborative process. A new inflexible practice of top-down scheduling, said Rowe, doesn\u2019t \u201callow for adequate charting, adequate break time, being able to leave when you\u2019re supposed to be off work. It\u2019s very disorganized \u2026 That\u2019s a very, very big point of contention.\u201d<\/p>\n

Like Rowe\u2019s technical unit, the OFNHP\u2019s Pro bargaining unit encompasses staff in around 30 separate disciplines; Palmer is among them. As has been the case for so many other units in AHU locals, Palmer and her colleagues have arrived at unnavigable impasse: Management has seemingly decided to advance no further towards compromise.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn theory, the partnership works great,\u201d Palmer went on. \u201cBut in reality, I don\u2019t think we\u2019ve been working well together for at least the last five to 10 years. Part of that is because we have different management now, and they don\u2019t buy into the partnership as much.\u201d Onetime opportunities for staff input and joint problem-solving, she says, have dried up \u2014 replaced by \u201ca more of a traditional top-down approach\u201d from newer managers. \u201cOften, they\u2019ve never worked in health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

A likely motivator for this newly uncooperative, profit-focused management is the perverse incentives introduced to health care entities by financialization<\/a>, especially after the intrusion of private equity firms \u2014 as has been apparent time and again at modern institutions like universities and hospitals<\/a> (Kaiser among them<\/a>). Many venerable institutions, handwaving away the lofty and noble aims of their founding charters, have moved to prioritize profit<\/a>, often by leveraging their assets to reap returns for investors. But the intrusion of profit mechanisms reliably distorts institutional motives. Financialization of this type seems to inevitably compromise the original service \u2014 for instance, teaching medical students, or treating patients. The consequences of a profit-focused orientation for hospital patients can range from inconvenience to death \u2014 as credible research has shown, finding clear causal links between private equity acquisition of hospitals and the actual<\/a> fatality rates in emergency rooms. At Kaiser, the stakes are no less severe.<\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more, the managers and directors that are coming in are bean counters that have no experience in health care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cMore and more, the managers and directors that are coming in are bean counters that have no experience in health care, but they feel like they can make things more efficient,\u201d said Palmer. \u201cAnd that\u2019s just not the way it works.\u201d<\/p>\n

For many Kaiser employees, it\u2019s becoming nearly impossible to ignore the sense that the incentives of profit and control are the prime reason behind these changes<\/a> \u2014 more than patient care, more than staff welfare. (It\u2019s also both alarming and revealing that Kaiser has proven ready to retaliate<\/a> against those who blow the whistle on internal understaffing and patient safety concerns.)<\/p>\n

Many have also been dismayed to see Kaiser\u2019s reputation and metrics dwindle. \u201cWe know our access and staffing is really bad,\u201d Palmer said, \u201cbecause it\u2019s incredibly difficult to get just basic appointments.\u201d Indeed, earlier this year, Kaiser was issued a $4 million fine from California\u2019s Department of Managed Health Care<\/a> for its failure to address recurrent major mental health care delays \u2014 which had become so bad that they were actually illegal. The department, finding dismal standards that have gone unaddressed<\/a>, has cited Kaiser multiple on multiple occasions over the years. According to the charges in a National Union of Healthcare Workers report, Kaiser has also, in some cases, resorted to falsifying records<\/a> of patient schedules to avoid citation by regulators.<\/p>\n

Extended wait times are rampant, even in critical treatment areas. As Palmer said with chagrin, \u201cYour cancer screening appointments are only available three, four months past the time when you\u2019re due\u201d to have them. Needless to say, delays of this kind will also inevitably cost patients their lives. Statistically, it\u2019s a near-certainty that they already have.<\/p>\n

Kaiser leadership disputed those claims. \u201cThe Alliance\u2019s campaign uses strong language, pickets, and strike threats to rally support,\u201d they told Truthout in a statement. \u201cThey say their goal is to protect patients by ensuring better care and staffing, but the real issue is wages\u2026 Their claims about Kaiser Permanente\u2019s quality and staffing don\u2019t reflect the facts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Uncompetitive Compensation<\/p>\n

Perhaps the central concern for labor in the negotiations is that Kaiser\u2019s pay has failed to keep up with inflation. In general, Kaiser\u2019s pay runs low compared to other hospital systems, particularly in the Northwest, though pay rates can vary, and are reportedly more reasonable in areas of California.<\/p>\n

\u201cYour cancer screening appointments are only available three, four months past the time when you\u2019re due.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cOne of our main goals in bargaining was to be paid fairly, and to be paid for all hours worked,\u201d Palmer said. (She described how at Kaiser, it\u2019s the norm to consistently get in early, stay late, and\/or take on extra work, often multiple hours per week. This is done to keep up with workloads and licensing, but also very often out of a desire to provide patients with more attentive care.)<\/p>\n

On wage increases, she says, \u201cWe had lots of different ideas \u2026 and management had no interest in continuing to bargain with us on that topic.\u201d Asked if she felt that Kaiser was abusing the knowledge that its employees would devote extra unpaid hours to make up shortfalls, Palmer replied without hesitation: \u201c100 percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

The AHU negotiates for wage rates that apply to all employees, referred to as \u201cacross-the-boards\u201d (ATBs). The AHU is asking that over the four-year contract, ATB raises increase incrementally to 25 percent. Management\u2019s current counteroffer<\/a> grants 6.5-percent upticks for two years, and reaches 20 percent over four. Over time, this represents a considerable difference: tens of thousands of dollars at some rates.<\/p>\n

As if to ensure that their reluctance at the bargaining table feels maximally galling, Kaiser Permanente has continued to grant CEO Gregory Adams millions of dollars in compensation per year, leading to his reliable appearance<\/a> among the top three highest-paid chief nonprofit executives in the nation. And further congratulations may also be (bitterly) due, as the company itself has also recently attained record multibillion-dollar profits.<\/a><\/p>\n

Nevertheless, Kaiser negotiators have not budged an inch on wages. Ultimately, despite the painstaking negotiations, Palmer felt that \u201cnothing has been touched when it comes to those really large issues about workloads, templates, and being paid for all hours worked, as well as the local wage increases \u2026 At national there has really been no movement as well,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s different this time around than in 2021. I feel like in 2021, Kaiser was still coming to the table and offering different things. They\u2019re not doing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Kaiser disputed the characterization that its pay runs below market, noting that it had offered to boost wages by 21.5 percent over four years. In a statement, Kaiser wrote: \u201cTaking the current economic environment into consideration, our across-the-board 4-year wage increases would normally have averaged 14 percent in total, to be consistent with estimated annual wage inflation. Our offer is significantly higher than that because from the beginning of the negotiations process, the union asked that contract raises consider their lower increases during the pandemic. Our strong offer boosts above-market pay, benefits, and career growth, and raises wages by 21.5 percent over four years.\u201d<\/p>\n

Traveling Blues<\/p>\n

While it is true that management does regularly act to ease staffing shortages by recruiting extra help, they do so by bringing on travel nurses \u2014 akin to temps, or maybe gig workers or freelancers. They\u2019re paid fairly well, and Kaiser outlays considerable funds to make use of them.<\/p>\n

Yet how could this major expenditure possibly be of any benefit, even from the vantage of pure self-interest? One possibility is that travel nurses, if not cheap, are less empowered and more expendable. Palmer agreed with this assessment. \u201cI think that they see hiring more union workers as too difficult to deal with,\u201d she said, \u201cwhereas they see hiring travelers or externalizing us as a really easy fix, instead of having to deal with bargaining in good faith with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Madeline Litts is a registered nurse at Kaiser, as well as a shop steward who\u2019s also involved in a bargaining unit and the negotiations. As a one-time travel nurse herself, Litts made it clear that criticizing this state of affairs does not imply any personal antipathy toward other individual nurses, travel or otherwise. No matter how skilled and compassionate, travel nurses are just inevitably less familiar with the hospital and procedures than a full employee. Some research has found a correlation<\/a> with their use and poorer patient outcomes. When they\u2019re used in lieu of permanent staff, Litts feels, there\u2019s a lesser degree \u201cof shared interest, of a commitment there \u2026 I\u2019m not anti-travel nurse. I just don\u2019t understand why a business wants to pay more to someone to be less committed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Litts says that in bargaining, management made it clear that they \u201cwould like to be able to [hire travelers] at-will, without any labor participation.\u201d To help guard against bad hires, Litts and her colleagues asked management for at least a chance to give feedback on resumes. \u201cAnd they said no. They don\u2019t want us to be able to vet each other.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI think the daily frustrations that have built up \u2026 there\u2019s a boiling point.\u201d<\/p>\n

Litts herself expressed uncertainty that management is careless enough to place profit over patient welfare. Of course, things are more complex than that. Still, whatever the good intentions of individual administrators \u2014 and there are surely many \u2014 it appears evident that impersonal, structural pressures are acting upon all involved, with or without their willing complicity.<\/p>\n

As of now, it would seem that, if management remains intransigent through October 14, a system-wide strike remains the only recourse for the Kaiser staff of the AHU\u2019s member unions, both to protect their own livelihood and to stem some of the deleterious effects that pressure tactics and profiteering have inflicted on the Kaiser system.<\/p>\n

Litts aptly summed up the state of mind of Kaiser staffers. As she told Truthout, \u201cI think the daily frustrations that have built up \u2026 there\u2019s a boiling point. When you\u2019re feeling disrespected day to day, publicly disrespected, there\u2019s only so much any of us can take. We take pride in the work we do. We take pride in who we work with. So for it not to feel reciprocated \u2014 we don\u2019t want to make things easy for them when they\u2019re not trying to make things easy for us. We\u2019re going to keep showing up at the table and bargaining in good faith, because that\u2019s who we are.\u201d<\/p>\n

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