An open-ended strike at Kaiser Permanente hospitals in California and Hawaii continued into the second week on Monday, with no resolution yet in sight.
The United Nurses Association of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, which represents 31,000 workers, including about 250 in Hawaii, began striking on Jan. 26. The union says the strike will continue as long as it takes to get a fair contract with adequate wages, staffing levels, and benefits for all. Their contracts expired on Sept. 30.
Dozens of registered nurses, certified registered nurse anesthetists, and pharmacists, among others, continued to picket at Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center, wielding signs that said, “On Strike for Patient Care and Safety” and “No Anesthesia, No Sweet Dreams.”
“It’s about fairness,” said Rachel Stone, a pharmacist at Kaiser. “It’s not just pharmacist’ wages that are on the line. It’s physician assistants, technicians, registered nurses, it’s pretty much every discipline. And it’s not just about wages, it’s about patient safety.”
Talks between Kaiser and the Alliance of Health Care Unions, which represents 23 local unions including UNAC/UHCP, had been ongoing since May, but reached an impasse in mid-December. Talks between the two have not since resumed.
The union in December filed complaints with the National Labor Relations Board, saying Kaiser unlawfully walked away from the national bargaining table. Kaiser on Jan. 21 filed suit against the Alliance in California Central District Court, alleging a breach of their partnership agreement.
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The unfair labor strike is in response to Kaiser’s attempt to bypass the agreed-upon national bargaining process and its delay tactics, the union said.
Kaiser said a strike disrupting the lives of patients is unnecessary when such a generous offer is on the table.
The health system is offering 21.5% in wage increases across the board over four years, with 16% of it in the first two years — the strongest compensation package in its national bargaining history.
“The total pay increase we are offering, including step increases, results in about a 30% increase over the length of the contract,” said Kaiser in a posted statement, “and that doesn’t count the value of the benefits enhancements we’ve proposed.”
But UNAC/UHCP contended that higher wages are needed to keep pace with the cost of living, and that there are still pay disparities between workers in Hawaii and California, and between Southern and Northern California.
‘Fuzzy math’
Kaiser countered that the union’s demand for wage increases, wage scale adjustments and step increases for nurses, combined, amount to a pay hike of 63% over four years.
This, Kaiser said, would result in a $3 billion increase in the annual payroll for Alliance-represented employees by the end of the contract. Its current proposal would increase payroll by $2 billion.
“UNAC/UHCP’s additional wage demands are unsustainable,” said Kaiser. “They would make health care less affordable for Kaiser Permanente members and customers. And, they would have broad reaching implications for health care costs in every market we serve.”
The union, however, said this was “fuzzy math” inflating the numbers, and that instead of returning to the bargaining table with the Alliance, Kaiser is buying newspaper ads “to insult hardworking RNs and health professionals.”
Kaiser has plenty in reserves, more than $65 billion, to improve wages and staffing at its hospitals, the union pointed out in its report, “Profits Over Patients,” which it posted online.
But nurses are still being asked to do the work of two people, sometimes without adequate support from certified nursing assistants and without break relief.
“When Kaiser says it doesn’t have resources to fix staffing, what we hear is that a nonprofit health care organization would rather protect an enormous financial cushion than protect patients and the people who care for them,” said UNAC/UHCP President Charmaine Morales in statement.
Kaiser, however, said union claims about staffing do not reflect the facts.
“For more than two decades we have been staffing our Southern California hospitals with more nurses than are required by the state,” said Kaiser in a statement. “Even during big patient surges when our nurse-to-patient staffing ratios may decrease, we are always at or above the state-mandated staffing levels. We also have a system which monitors the level of illness of our patients, and makes sure we are staffing at levels that meet or exceed the level of care they need.”
UNAC/UHCP also represents nurse practitioners, nurse midwives, assistants, rehab therapists, dietitians, optometrists, and speech language pathologists, among others.
Kaiser said all of its hospitals, including Moanalua, and nearly all its medical offices will remain staffed and open during the strike.
Some pharmacies may be closed, and some appointments may be shifted to virtual care while some elective surgeries and procedures may need to be rescheduled. Kaiser will contact patients if appointments or surgeries need to be rescheduled.