Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente nurses and healthcare professionals walked off the job Monday, Jan. 26, their second strike since a five-day walkout last October.
Some 31,000 registered nurses and health professionals with the United Nurses Associations of California / Union of Health Care Professionals, or UNAC/UHCP are picketing at more than two dozen hospitals and more than 200 clinics — from Los Angeles and San Diego to Oakland and Honolulu.
In Southern California, picketing began at Kaiser Permanente hospitals at 7 a.m. in Anaheim, Baldwin Park, Downey, Fontana, Irvine, Los Angeles, Ontario, Riverside, South Bay in Harbor City, West Los Angeles and Woodland Hills.
An independent mediator, the nurses unions and Kaiser were all scheduled to be back at the negotiation table for a new labor contract.
Kaiser also brought in thousands of travel nurses to replace the striking workers, according to union officials and social media posts from nurses sharing their upcoming travel plans to California.
Last week, the healthcare provider filed a lawsuit against the union and its alliance partners, attempting to splinter the bargaining process into local contracts so that Kaiser can offer competing compensation packages in order to drive down costs.
In a statement to the Southern California News Group late last week, Kaiser said it “does not make sense to return to a (bargaining) process that has been stalled for months” with the union group that oversees the Western U.S. — called the United Nurses Associations of California / Union of Health Care Professionals, or UNAC/UHCP.
Liz Hawkins, a nurse and secretary for UNAC/UHCP, who has been sitting at the bargaining table with Kaiser since last spring, believes Kaiser is using the lawsuit as a strategy to reduce her union’s clout at the bargaining table.
“They’re saying they are under no obligation to bargain as a group,” Hawkins said. “They’ve pushed that national agreement to local conversations. We disagree with that.”
UNAC/UHCP is the largest of the 23 bargaining units in the Alliance of Health Care Unions, a federation of 23 local unions representing more than 60,000 Kaiser employees nationwide, formed to collectively bargain for wages, benefits, working conditions and patient care within Kaiser’s unique National Labor Management Partnership. That alliance is what Kaiser wants to break up.
Also see: Kaiser strike ends without labor agreement for 31,000 healthcare workers
Kaiser’s footprint covers the Western states where strikes wrapped up in October, plus Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. Nationwide, Kaiser has 608 medical offices and 40 hospitals.
In Southern California, where Kaiser operates its regional headquarters in Pasadena, the healthcare provider oversees 16 hospitals, 200 medical offices and 91,900 employees serving 4.9 million members. Northern California has nearly 91,500 employees at 21 hospitals and 203 medical offices serving 4.6 million members.
The Kaiser Permanente suit, which was filed Wednesday, Jan. 21 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California in Los Angeles, alleges the alliance breached its obligations under the national bargaining agreement.
Also see: Kaiser affiliates will pay $556 million to settle a lawsuit alleging Medicare fraud
It is unclear what the lawsuit means for the upcoming strike and future negotiations between Kaiser and individual bargaining units in the alliance.
Kaiser and the UNAC/UHCP are negotiating to replace a five-year contract that expired Sept. 30. The union is striking for higher wages and benefits and hiring more employees to fill staffing shortages. It initially sought a 38% pay hike over four years and is now seeking a 25% raise. Kaiser has offered a 21.5% pay hike over four years.
Kaiser said its facilities would be working as usual during the strike, which is open-ended. Some of its pharmacies may have their hours cut, though “contingency plans” are in place to minimize the impact.
Last October’s strike, the largest ever for Kaiser unions and first since 1980, began with the healthcare giant flying in thousands of replacement staff from around the country to fill critical patient care jobs.
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