Kaiser Permanente Workers go on Strike

By: Reifet Islam '24

Photo from reuters.com

On October 5th, approximately 75,000 medical workers from Kaiser Permanente Facilities across the nation initiated their preplanned three-day strike. To put pressure on the health organization, these workers hope to strike a deal on a new contract consisting of higher wages and greater staffing levels, as one of their greatest issues is staffing shortages. This puts additional strain on them and makes it harder for them to provide patients with adequate care. Labor leaders call this strike one of the biggest healthcare strikes in US history, surpassing the US health sector walkout of 53,000 employees in 2018. The strike varies from laboratory workers, physicians, pharmacy technicians, phlebotomists, and housekeeping workers, causing countless delays in medical appointments, lab results, and prescriptions for patients. Although doctors, surgeons, and nurses are not a part of the strike, various medical procedures could still be delayed and clinical hours will be greatly shortened.

Specifically, the strikers are demanding a minimum wage of $25 per hour with a reformed bonus structure. Kaiser used to offer wage increases of 12-16% in four-year increments, but workers have expressed how this is simply inadequate in comparison to the amount of work they put in and the recent inflation that has been occurring. Lower staffing levels due to the number of workers that left during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic are also leaving a tight crunch on the ones that did not leave. The union states that Kaiser needs to hire at least 10,000 more employees to re-instantiate proper staffing. They also suggest that Kaiser revamp their hiring process, as they believe it is one of the main causes for this stagnant state of insufficient staffing. In an interview with the New York Times, Edward Lopez-Matus, a Kaiser medical assistant on strike, stated that he was often assigned to help two doctors instead of one due to short staffing. Along with this, he said due to the insufficient pay he also had to work as an Uber driver for forty hours a week to properly support his family.

According to Reuters, it is suspected that this strike will influence employees in other health facilities to also go on strike, seeking out better wages and a working environment. This could already be seen, as eleven Tenet Healthcare facilities across California are planned to go on strike later this month.