{"id":421284,"date":"2026-01-21T18:26:12","date_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:26:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/421284\/"},"modified":"2026-01-21T18:26:12","modified_gmt":"2026-01-21T18:26:12","slug":"hundreds-of-northern-california-kaiser-workers-to-join-systemwide-strike-in-california-hawaii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/421284\/","title":{"rendered":"Hundreds of Northern California Kaiser workers to join systemwide strike in California, Hawaii"},"content":{"rendered":"

Lea el art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed.<\/a><\/p>\n

Just three months after their last strike<\/a>, more than 120 Kaiser Permanente<\/a> medical workers in Santa Rosa are once again expected to indefinitely walk off the job next week as part of sweeping strike involving Kaiser workers across California and Hawaii.<\/p>\n

The planned stoppage stems from a labor dispute between Kaiser and the United Nurses Association of California\/Union of Health Care Professionals<\/a>, affecting some 31,000 workers at nearly 20 hospitals and 200 clinics in the two states.<\/p>\n

In Northern California, the union represents 2,800 workers, including registered nurses, physician assistants, nurse anesthetists and acupuncturists. Negotiations between the union and Kaiser have been stalled since late last year.<\/p>\n

The union accuses Kaiser of prioritizing its financial holdings, private investments and executive pay over staffing shortages and fair pay. For their part, Kaiser officials say they\u2019re proposing a significant boost to already generous employee compensation.<\/p>\n

The union\u2019s contract with Kaiser expired Sept. 30, and the union carried out a 5-day strike in October<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Brian Mason, the union\u2019s chief negotiator in Northern California, said the indeterminate length of the planned strike reflects the severity of the breakdown in negotiations. Mason said safe and adequate staffing levels are among the key issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cKaiser has been double and triple booking patients with one provider,\u201d he said. \u201cThat\u2019s delaying care and access to care\u2026certified registered nurse anesthetists have a massive amount of turnover, and Kaiser isn\u2019t addressing that.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mason said Kaiser wants to eliminate workers\u2019 retirement plan and reduce pensions and health care benefits to punish them for recently unionizing. The union represents certified nurse midwives, certified registered nurse anesthetists and physician assistants.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are on \u00a0a strike until we reach an agreement,\u201d Mason said.<\/p>\n

A Kaiser official said plans are in place \u201cto ensure our members and patients continue to receive safe, high-quality care.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cWe hope our UNAC\/UHCP represented employees will choose not to strike so we can resolve our differences at the bargaining table,\u201d said Lionel Sims, senior vice president of human resources for Kaiser Permanente Northern California.<\/p>\n

The United Nurses Associations of California\/Union of Health Care Professionals, UNAC\/UHCP, is part of the Alliance of Health Care Unions, a federation of 21 local unions representing more than 60,000 Kaiser employees.<\/p>\n

Sims said in a statement the health care giant is trying to balance fair compensation and quality care during unstable times for hospitals and the health care industry in general.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese negotiations come at a time when health care costs are rising, and millions of Americans are at risk of losing access to health coverage,\u201d Sims said. \u201cThis underscores our responsibility to deliver fair, competitive pay for employees while protecting access and affordability for our members. We\u2019re doing both.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sims said \u201cAlliance employees\u201d at Kaiser earn, on average, about 16% to 24% more than counterparts at other providers, depending on the market. Kaiser\u2019s current proposal calls for a 21.5% wage increase over the life of the 4-year contract, with the largest share of the bump, 16%, frontloaded over first 2 years, he said. The total increase will be about 30% when step increases and local adjustments are factored in.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis proposal represents a significant investment \u2014 nearly $2 billion in additional payroll costs \u2014 while maintaining affordability for our members and customers,\u201d Sims said in his statement.<\/p>\n

Sims said there\u2019s been no \u201cmaterial movement\u201d in negotiations since Dec. 14, when Kaiser paused national bargaining following \u201can incident\u201d involving a UNAC\/UHCP representative. Kaiser said the union threatened to release information that would be damaging to Kaiser\u2019s reputation if it did not agree to labor demands.<\/p>\n

Greg Holmes, Kaiser\u2019s chief human resources officer, in a Dec. 18 video<\/a>, said \u201cillegal threats are a line that cannot be crossed. Holmes said the union official\u2019s actions effectively \u201ccompromised the national bargaining process and undermined both parties\u2019 ability to continue good faith bargaining.\u201d<\/p>\n

The union recently released a report<\/a> it says documents the provider\u2019s \u201cbillions of dollars in reserves and questionable financial investments,\u201d even as patients are impacted by delayed care caused by chronic understaffing.<\/p>\n

The report says Kaiser generated \u201cmassive profits\u201d of nearly $13 billion in 2024 in net income and hoarding $66 billion in unrestricted reserves, while patient premiums have increased every year.<\/p>\n

The report also accuses Kaiser of bloated executive pay.<\/p>\n

\u201cInstead of reinvesting in patient care or stabilizing its workforce, Kaiser invests in foreign entities with hedge funds, private equity groups, and Russian nationals.,\u201d the report states. \u201cThis includes companies like CoreCivic and the GEO Group, which run ICE detention centers and provide health care and living conditions so substandard they border on criminal.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sims dismissed the report, calling it a \u201ccollection of misrepresentations of facts across a broad range of issues, already published news stories, and information we have publicly reported.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mason the union is striking because Kaiser is refusing to restart bargaining. \u201cThey\u2019re more concerned about profits that they are in patients,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re buying up other health systems but they\u2019re not doing anything to fix the access to care here in California.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charmaine S. Morales, a registered nurse and the union president, said in a statement that Kaiser can end the dispute whenever they decide to \u201ccome back to the table\u201d and resume bargaining.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019re authorizing a strike to win staffing that protects patients, win workload standards that stop moral injury, and win the respect and dignity Kaiser has denied for far too long,\u201d Charmaine S. Morales, RN, the union president, said in a statement.<\/p>\n

You can reach Staff Writer Martin Espinoza at 707-521-5213 or martin.espinoza@pressdemocrat.com.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Lea el art\u00edculo en espa\u00f1ol aqu\u00ed. Just three months after their last strike, more than 120 Kaiser Permanente…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":421285,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[201140,97,252,253,9537,201142,201139,64424,201141],"class_list":{"0":"post-421284","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-health-care","8":"tag-certified-registered-nurse-anesthetists","9":"tag-health","10":"tag-health-care","11":"tag-healthcare","12":"tag-kaiser-permanente","13":"tag-labor-dispute","14":"tag-nurse-midwives","15":"tag-strike","16":"tag-unac-uhcp"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=421284"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/421284\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/421285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=421284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=421284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=421284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}