Thousands of Kaiser Permanente workers walked off the job Wednesday morning, kicking off the largest strike in healthcare history.
The strike by 75,000 frontline employees of the Oakland, California-based system started 6 a.m. PST, after several consecutive days of unsuccessful contract negotiations between system leadership and members of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. The previous contract expired Saturday.
Related: Healthcare unions see increased interest, contract wins
The strike, which affects 42 Kaiser facilities nationwide, is scheduled to last until 6 a.m. PST Saturday. Employees and roles affected include licensed vocational nurses, emergency department technicians, ultrasound sonographers, respiratory therapists, certified nursing assistants, dietary service workers, pharmacy technicians, transporters, home health aides and phlebotomists.
In a statement made early Wednesday morning before the strike started, Kaiser said system leaders and coalition representatives were still at the bargaining table and had reached agreements on several issues.
The coalition maintains, however, that Kaiser has continued to bargain in bad faith and has made “aggressive threats” about outsourcing employees.
The health system has not offered to make a meaningful investment toward addressing staffing issues, according to a Wednesday morning statement by the coalition.
“To be honest, we don’t want to be here,” said Jessica Cruz, a licensed vocational nurse and one of the workers striking at Kaiser’s Los Angeles Medical Center. “It was a very difficult decision, being torn between [striking], or staying at work and listening to patients saying they’re not getting the care they deserve.”
Kaiser said its hospitals and emergency departments will remain open during the strike and it may use temporary workers to fill some roles.
If no agreement is reached following the three-day strike, union members are prepared to strike again for a longer period of time in November, said Renée Saldaña, a spokesperson for SEIU-UHW, one of 11 union groups in the coalition.
Nationally, union activity in healthcare has been picking up as workers at different facilities stage rallies, protests and strikes to advocate for higher pay and staffing levels.
At St. Francis Medical Center in Lynwood, California, several hundred registered nurses and medical support staff represented by the United Nurses Associations of California, the Union of Health Care Professionals and SEIU-UHW have said they plan to strike Oct. 9 through Oct.13.
Nearly 4,000 frontline workers across 11 Tenet Healthcare hospitals and outpatient facilities in California are prepared to go on strike later this month as well if no progress is made in contract negotiations.