In the midst of a Los Angeles downpour, South Bay Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers grabbed their rain ponchos and whistles, donned their blue “Make Kaiser Great Again” hats, and began gathering at 7 a.m. this morning in protest of alleged unfair labor practices and wages. The strike was initiated by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) and will continue through the rest of the work week.
Spanning the West Coast from Oregon to Hawaii, the week-long picket will affect hundreds of hospitals and will include over 40,000 employees, with over 30,000 being in the state of California, according to a press release shared by the union Friday. Despite this, Kaiser Permanente is continuing operations using contract nurses and other healthcare professionals to fill gaps left by picketing workers, according to a statement shared with Annenberg Media on Tuesday.
Liliana de la Torre, a nurse working in South Bay Medical Center’s critical care unit and a steward of UNAC/UHCP, said workers are on strike in response to Kaiser’s alleged disregard for fair wages and unsustainable ratios of nurses to patients.
“Right now, we’re fighting for fair staffing. A lot of our units are going out of ratio, which is a contracted Kaiser benefit right now, so what we’re asking Kaiser is to fix it,” de la Torre said. “We need more nurses. We need our clinics to be better staffed. We’re all also just asking for fair wages as well.”
She emphasized the importance of publicly displaying a sense of unity between Kaiser employees and making a statement with the strike.
In the statement shared with Annenberg Media, Kaiser said that they have proposed a 21.5% wage increase across four years, as well as improved medical and retirement plans. According to Kaiser, the union continues to demand 25%.
“Despite our best efforts to reach a fair agreement that supports our employees and sustains high-quality, affordable care, some of the Alliance unions have called a strike that serves no one, least of all, our members and patients,” the statement reads.
Karina Torres-Dwyer, South Bay’s local union vice president and a registered nurse, expressed her disappointment in what she views as Kaiser’s lack of response to the union’s demands.
“They refuse to listen to our concerns, which is basically staffing. We need more nurses, we need better resources, and it’s so we can do our job, so we can take care of our patients,” Torres-Dwyer said. “We want to make livable wages, and we also want to be able to take care of our patients. If we’re not given the resources that we need, then we can’t give quality care.”
Employees who have worked with Kaiser for long periods of time have reported seeing ups and downs when it comes to treatment of workers. Shaunna Aguet-Lightfoot has been with Kaiser for 23 years and expressed a need for more support and improvements in staffing.
“Over the last 23 years, I just feel that … they’ve asked more and more, and we’ve given more and more, and there’s no additional resources,” Aguet-Lightfoot said, adding that there has been a distinct reduction in the number of supporting nurses, such as vocational nurses and nursing assistants, since she started with the company.
“It feels like the more they’ve asked, the more they’ve taken … the help is gone,” Aguet-Lightfoot said.
Kaiser’s statement did not address staffing concerns, though it did emphasize perceived pitfalls of a 25% increase in wages across four years.
“Anything beyond 21.5% will require us to further increase rates for our members and customers at a time when health care costs are increasingly unaffordable and many are having to make the difficult choice to go without coverage. We have a responsibility to do the right thing for our employees and our members and customers,” the statement reads.
Felicia Kornegay, a registered nurse working in pre-op and recovery, has worked for Kaiser for 29 years. She said today’s picket marks the first time since she began working at Kaiser that registered nurses have had to go on strike.
“Today is about a fair contract bringing us up to the standard of living — retirement benefits, just our overall package of what Kaiser is not offering us at this time,” Kornegay said. “We are a partnership with our management and administrators. It’s supposed to be a partnership.”
This strike is not the first time Kaiser employees have come together in response to alleged unfair treatment. de la Torre said the union has attempted to bargain with the company for months.
“We have been talking with Kaiser for about seven months now, and when our contract expired, they gave us a lowball offer around 1:30 in the morning after it expired, when all of our union officers were tired. They were there since 7 a.m.,” de la Torre said. “Then we had bargaining dates set for last week, Monday through Friday, and our union officers were all there, ready to bargain. Kaiser never showed up.”
Kaiser’s statement to Annenberg Media claimed the contrary — according to them, bargaining has been in progress.
“Since May, we’ve worked to reach new national and local agreements—achieving 52 tentative agreements, holding over 900 local bargaining sessions, and reaching comprehensive agreements at 17 of 54 local tables,” Kaiser’s statement said. “We’ve enhanced proposals, initiated mediation, and extended bargaining. Even after receiving 10-day strike notices, we continued negotiating, seeking agreement. Unfortunately, the Alliance has made little meaningful progress.”
South Bay union members are set to remain on strike until 7 p.m. today and from 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. for the next three days in hopes of yielding more promising negotiations with Kaiser Permanente. The company is keeping its site updated with current offers extended to the unions.
“We like taking care of patients, but we also have to advocate for ourselves as healthcare professionals. There’s a lot of gaps in healthcare, and we have a gap in nurses,” Torres-Dwyer said. “We shouldn’t be out here. We should be taking care of our patients, but it’s a principle of them not meeting us where we need to be, and we’re not asking for much.”