More than 400 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente, the nation’s largest nonprofit healthcare provider, jammed a downtown Los Angeles sidewalk on Wednesday, protesting what they say are unfair working conditions after failed labor negotiations.
The workers were among some 75,000 Kaiser employees nationally who went on strike.
The strike will actively affect hospitals and medical offices in California, Colorado, Oregon, Virginia, the District of Columbia and Washington.
Unions that represent Kaiser workers are demanding negotiations in good faith for a staffing shortage. The Union is also seeking better pay and benefits as talks between Kaiser executives and workers continue.
On Sunset Blvd. strikers chanted, “we are the Union, the mighty mighty Union” outside the hospital as they continued to march up and down the three city block stretch.
“I’m just here to follow the agenda, which is to lead the workers to a safe and very powerful, impactful strike,” said Daniel Alejandro Lopez, one of the strike leaders.
Gathering a group of strikers in the main driveway, Lopez led the chants in front of the hospital. Lopez was one of the union representatives present inside the negotiation room with the executives.
“They’re just bargaining in bad faith,” Lopez explained. They’re not meeting us at the table. So that’s pretty much what that leads down to.”
As a leader of the union, Lopez wants to settle on a deal that provides the best outcome for the workers.
“There’s people that still have unions and organizers because this is what we are. We are organizers, and we make sure that workers are not being violated with their rights and make sure we get a fair contract at the end of the day, because we want to be at work,” said Lopez of the Union’s ultimate goal.
The battle between the frontline workers and Kaiser executives comes at a risk of putting millions without essential healthcare.
“We need more workers to help us so we can take better care of our patients,” said Ju’anna Isaiah, a ward clerk transcriber at Kaiser. “We don’t want to shuttle the patients around like cattle. We want to give them the treatment that they need. We already have workers leaving the workforce because of the bad staffing crisis that we’re dealing with.”
Kaiser workers are one of many Union groups that have been or are currently on strike due to unfair labor agreements or pay disputes.
Hollywood writers have recently come to an agreement after weeks of striking, United Auto Workers have more than 20,000 workers currently on strike and the Union representing UPS workers came to an agreement for a pay raise within the last month.
“It saddens me because you know, UPS can go in and give them that kind of increase for packages,” Isaiah said. “Do you really value what health care workers do?”
Licensed vocational nurse Jessica Cruz said that refill orders for her patients have been put at the backend. Cruz said that one patient has an order from July that hasn’t been fulfilled due to the lack of workers able to complete orders.
Cruz has a simple request for the Kaiser executives: “We want Kaiser executives to address the Kaiser report staffing crisis — Kaiser executives to give patients the safe care they deserve.”
“It’s conflicting because we don’t want to be out in a strike line. We’d rather be helping patients,” said Cruz.
Another licensed vocational nurse, Gumecindo Rubio, spoke for a group of nurses he was standing with. Rubio mentioned that the problems have been ongoing for a while now, with the previous bargaining agreement being put on pause following COVID-19.
“The old problems were never fixed, and now with COVID, they really presented themselves. We couldn’t reach out to [the executives] as quickly as we’d like and all of that really grew or showed itself during the pandemic,” said Rubio.
Emotionally, Rubio felt differently than some of the other striking workers.
“Emotionally, I feel great. I feel supported by my co-workers of all different classifications. I feel like we can do this. We just need to persevere, stay strong and [be] determined.”
Kaiser released a statement on their website stating that they are disappointed in the decision for some Unions to go on strike. They said that patients can expect longer wait times and that the patient’s care is at their top priority.