In what unions are calling the largest healthcare strike ever in America, staff at hundreds of Kaiser Permanente hospitals and medical facilities stopped work last week, exerting pressure on their employer to fix a staffing shortage that has intensified since the start of the pandemic.
They are also calling for increases of nearly 25% for all members.
More than 75 000 workers – including nurses, emergency department technicians, pharmacists and hundreds of others – downed tools in California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Virginia and Washington DC.
Kaiser, headquartered in California, is one of the largest non-profit healthcare providers in the United States, serving nearly 13m patients. Most Kaiser workers who have walked off the job will be on strike for three days – except those in Virginia and Washington, who will be on strike for 24 hours.
The company said its hospitals and emergency departments would remain open throughout the strike, staffed by physicians and other staff, but warned that non-emergency and elective services may be rescheduled.
About 60% of Kaiser employees, including doctors, will still work throughout the strike, according to the organisation.
Staffing crisis
The protest, over work conditions and pay, is being driven by a short-staffing crisis that workers say has led to tough working conditions, making it increasingly difficult to retain employees, while simultaneously leading to a deterioration in the quality of care for patients.
About 11% of union positions were vacant in April this year, according to Kaiser data obtained by the unions.
“Healthcare workers choose this profession because it’s a passion for them. It’s a calling,” said Caroline Lucas, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.
“And folk don’t feel comfortable staying at jobs where they don’t feel they can give the best patient care possible.”
The unions allege Kaiser has engaged in unfair labour practices by refusing to bargain in good faith to solve the staffing crisis. Kaiser denies these allegations.
The company has asked workers to reject calls to walk off the job, to prevent harm to patients.
But employees like Brooke El-Amin, who has worked at Kaiser for 21 years, say patient care is already suffering due to staffing shortages. The goal of the strike is to put pressure on Kaiser to improve patient care in the long-run.
“I don’t want to strike,” El-Amin said. “But I feel Kaiser is already letting down our patients – they’re already letting down the employees.”
Keyani Adigun, a clinical pharmacist in Washington DC, said she struggled throughout the pandemic to keep up with patient demands, as colleagues left Kaiser in droves.
And she said her employer still isn’t providing enough resources – more than three years after Covid-19 hit the US.
“I hope that Kaiser leadership hears our voices,” she said. “The harder we work, the fewer resources we see.”
The collective bargaining agreement for employees, represented by a coalition of unions, expired on 30 September without a new agreement in place. The unions and Kaiser executives are still far apart on key sticking points, including wages, despite progress on issues such as outsourcing and subcontracting protections during talks over the weekend.
The two sides reached a tentative agreement on Monday on a 40% increase to an education fund, which will support additional training for employees, according to the SEIU-UHW union in California.
But the coalition is asking for a pay raise of nearly 25% for all members, along with better benefits, such as medical coverage for retirees.
With better pay and work conditions, the unions say, more people would be incentivised to stay at Kaiser. It would also attract newer workers – all of which would help alleviate the staffing shortage.
So far, Kaiser has countered with raises ranging from 12.5%-16% over four years. Kaiser also said in a statement that it’s close to reaching its goal of hiring 10 000 more people in union roles by the end of 2023 to fill vacancies.
The organisation stressed that staffing shortages and burnout are issues affecting the entire healthcare industry – not just Kaiser. It also said that its compensation and benefits packages are better than most.
“The people of Kaiser Permanente have faced down the pandemic better than most frontline workers because we started from a different place,” Kaiser said.
Lucas said Kaiser’s commitment to ramping up hiring is a step in the right direction. But she said the company isn’t taking into account the thousands of workers who keep leaving, adding that Kaiser needs to raise wages substantially to give people a reason to stay.
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