Union nurses and hospital staff with Kaiser Permanente medical facilities in Southern California are planning an “informational picket” on Friday, Aug. 1.
Kaiser Permanente and the United Nurses Associations of California / Union of Health Care Professionals, which represents more than 30,000 registered nurses and healthcare professionals in California and Hawaii, are negotiating to replace a five-year contract set to expire September 30.
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There are roughly 28,000 union workers at Kaiser Permanente medical facilities in Southern California, according to a UNAC/UHCP spokesman.
The union is seeking higher wages, better benefits and hiring more employees to fill staffing shortages, said Peter Sidhu, executive vice president of UNAC/UHCP.
“Over the last four years, we’ve seen significant changes in health care, and after COVID, we saw how short and bad staffing was,” he said. “During COVID, we did not bargain for ridiculous raises, but we negotiated very strong staffing language and what we’ve seen since then is an employer who hasn’t met the metrics when it came to the needs of the frontline staff. The employers continue to put Band-Aids on staffing versus addressing it head on.”
Sidhu said that higher wages are needed to keep up with inflation and stem the tide of workers leaving Kaiser Permanente for better pay at specialty clinics for infusions, dermatology and Botox, plus the rise in traveling nurses.
“We have to talk about the wages to recruit, retain and maintain the staff that we have now,” he said. “We understand that the company is struggling and these are uncertain times, but we need to fix staffing.”
A Kaiser Permanente spokeswoman said its medical facilities will “remain open and operate normally” on Friday.
Picketing is planned at Kaiser centers in Downey (Imperial Highway); Riverside (Magnolia Avenue); San Diego (Clairemont Mesa Boulevard); and West Los Angeles (Cadillac Avenue). UNAC /UHC also is planning a picket at a fifth facility in Honolulu.
The national agreement — called the Alliance of Health Care Unions — covers 23 union locals, which represent a total of 61,000 workers, including the additional states of Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and Washington, D.C., according to Kaiser.
UNAC/UHC represents registered nurses and healthcare professionals, including anesthetists, clinical lab scientists, nurse midwives, optometrists, pharmacists, physical therapists, technical staff and others.
Kaiser’s spokeswoman said the company is one of the largest unionized workforces in the United States, with more than 40 unions representing 193,500 union workers, roughly 80% of its employees.
She said Kaiser offers competitive wages, industry-leading benefits, and meaningful career development.
“We know the next few years will be a time of unprecedented change for health care,” she said. “We’re confident that, together with our alliance union partners, we’ll address key issues and reach an agreement that supports the financial security of our employees and affordability for our members.”
