Contract negotiations are expected to resume today between Kaiser Permanente and a coalition of unions representing thousands of its workers who staged a three-day strike last week, and who could walk out again next month if an agreement isn’t reached.
Roughly 75,000 workers represented by the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions walked off the job from Wednesday through Friday last week in what the union billed as the largest health care strike of its kind in U.S. history. Workers walked picket lines across California and in Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Kaiser officials said contract talks were set to resume Thursday, marking the first negotiations since the strike began. The sides held multiple negotiating sessions in the days leading up to the strike, including a marathon session that continued into the day Wednesday, even as workers began picketing.
Earlier this week, union officials said they notified Kaiser of plans to conduct a longer, seven-day strike beginning Nov. 1 if a contract agreement isn’t reached by then. The workers’ contract expired Sept. 30.
The union coalition has been pushing for higher wages commensurate with inflation, increased staffing and working conditions. The unions have also repeatedly accused Kaiser of negotiating in bad-faith, an allegation Kaiser has denied.
“At issue, health care workers say, are a series of unfair labor practices related to bargaining in bad faith, along with simmering staff concerns related to unsafe staffing levels that can lead to dangerously long wait times, mistaken diagnosis, and neglect,” according to an earlier union statement.
“After years of the COVID pandemic and chronic understaffing, Kaiser healthcare workers are calling on management to provide safe staffing levels.”
The union has also accused Kaiser of cutting performance bonuses for employees, failing to protect employees against subcontracting and offering wages that fail to keep pace with…
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