Thousands of unionized nurses and health care professionals at Kaiser Permanente facilities in California and Hawaii will return to work Tuesday, ending a roughly four-week strike carried out amid prolonged contract talks, union officials said Monday.
Officials with the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals said in a statement there has been “significant movement at the bargaining table” over the past 48 hours, prompting them to call for an end to the strike as of 7 a.m. Tuesday.
The union also called off all picketing activity on Monday as the union and Kaiser “finalize return-to-work agreements.”
The nurses’ strike began on Jan. 26. Union officials called it the “largest open-ended strike of registered nurses and health care professionals in United States history.”
There were no immediate details available about the how close the two sides were to reaching a contract agreement, or what issues may have been resolved.
The roughly 31,000 members of the UNAC/UHCP had vowed to stay on strike until a fair contract agreement was reached. UNAC/UHCP members include registered nurses, pharmacists, nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners, midwives, physician assistants, rehab therapists, speech language pathologists, dietitians and other specialty health care professionals.
“We’re striking because Kaiser has committed serious unfair labor practices and because Kaiser refuses to bargain in good faith over staffing that protects patients, workload standards that stop moral injury and the respect and dignity that Kaiser caregivers have been denied for far too long,” registered nurse Charmaine Morales, president of UNAC/UHCP, said previously.
Kaiser Permanente countered that it had “proposed 21.5% wage increases — our strongest national bargaining offer ever — and we are prepared to close agreements at local tables now. Employees deserve their raises and patients deserve our full attention, not prolonged disputes.”
Camille Applin-Jones, senior vice president at Kaiser Permanente Southern California, previously described Kaiser’s latest contract offer as “one of the strongest nursing contract offers in California this year” once step increases and local adjustments are factored in.
“Despite the union’s claims, this strike is about wages. This open- ended strike by UNAC/UHCP is unnecessary when such a generous offer is on the table. The strike is designed to disrupt the lives of our patients — the very people we are all here to serve,” Applin-Jones said.
The union filed an unfair labor practice charge against Kaiser with the National Labor Relations Board alleging the company walked away from the bargaining table in December and has attempted to bypass the agreed-upon national bargaining process.
The union has been bargaining with Kaiser since last May.
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