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Shop NowIn what’s being called the largest healthcare strike in US history, over 75,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente have just went on strike on Wednesday, October 4 across six states. The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions recently approved a three-day strike in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington and a one-day strike in Virginia and Washington D.C.
Over 85,000 employees nationwide are represented by the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions.
Despite this major disruption of business operations, Kaiser Permanente’s 39 hospitals will remain open during this period however, they have warned that appointments and non-urgent procedures could be delayed due to staff shortages.
In order to ameliorate this issue they are bringing in thousands of temporary employees; nonetheless doctors will not be participating in the strike.
Frontline healthcare workers are striking due to systematic understaffing within the hospital system that is leading to poor patient care. Licensed vocational nurses such as Mikki Fletchall claim that their patients are suffering because “they’re not listening to the frontline healthcare workers” while ward clerk transcriber Brittany Everidge indicates that pregnant people often must wait long periods before being checked into active labor due to staffing shortages.
Furthermore technicians such as X-ray department employee Tonya Harris have reported feeling overwhelmed by heavy workloads while trying to keep up with increasing levels of uncompensated care caused by inflation and labor shortages throughout the entire industry – issues made worse by pandemic burnout.
Kaiser executive Michelle Gaskill-Hames defends her company saying their practices compensation and retention are better than competitors even though revenue growth is difficult amid fixed government funded programs like Medicare and Medicaid according to Healthcare Financial Management Association senior vice president Rick Gundling.
Gaskill Hames also adds that “Our focus, for the dollars that we bring in, are to keep them invested in value-based care” citing only 7% turnover compared with 21% industry standard despite pandemic effects.
The hospital system has already hired 51 thousands new workers with plans for 10 thousand more by month’s end but unions demanding $25 hourly minimum wage plus annual increases between 6%-7%.
