About 1,000 Kaiser Permanente workers and their supporters in the Bay Area this week demanded changes from their employer, a union spokesperson said.
During protests on Monday, they demanded improved care for patients, safe staffing levels, restoration of a worker-management partnership and the protection of middle-class jobs as part of their labor agreement.
The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions comprises unions based in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Hawaii, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.
Their national contract with Kaiser Permanente expired Sept. 30, 2018, union officials said in a weekend statement. Union leaders contend Kaiser has not negotiated in good faith.
Spokesperson Sean Wherley of Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West said Kaiser wants to outsource more and more jobs to save money.
He said Kaiser is sending jobs to the lowest bidders.
These workers barely get paid minimum wage and few if any benefits, Wherley said.
This results in more worker turnover and less investment in Kaiser and patient care, he said. Last year, Wherley said, Kaiser made $5 billion in profits.
In a statement issued Sunday, Arlene Peasnall, Kaiser Permanente senior vice president of human resources, said that last fall, Kaiser negotiated a contract with the Alliance of Health Care Unions that established a strong partnership that improves Kaiser’s working environment and rewards employees with highly competitive wages, benefits and advancement programs.
Kaiser, Peasnall said, has contracts with 60 unions nationwide.
“We may have occasional disagreements, but we always work through these challenges to align on common goals that are in the best interest of our members, patients, employees and the communities we serve,” Peasnall said.
More than 37,000 Kaiser employees represented by Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West voted between July 31 and Aug. 11 to approve a strike in October.
ok… I ‘m not a fan of unions, but I have to wonder… why on Monday; Labor Day, when other than essential services Kaiser was a ghost town????
Because Labor Day is a symbolic holiday for workers.
well. yeah… obviously, but… it’s like they threw a party and noboy came…
How dare they demand things. Don’t they know that if they work hard and do as needed the company will, of course, share the profits with these hard workers? Just look at the coal miners – they broke their backs and we all know that the wealthy owners have, of course, shared the spoils with them such that they never have to work again.
I have too, and I agree.
kaiser needs to reduce their rates also or people will be dropping like flies
Not impressed….adios
Kaiser has about the lowest rates available. Looking over my current open enrollment materials, I can see that nothing else even comes close for similar coverage.
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$$$$$$$$$$ Strike! $$$$$$$ Strike! $$$$$$$$
And live pretty darn comfortably doing so.
5 BILLION in profits? Let me guess where that went. New facilities for our shrinking population?
And speaking of unions. Should we revisit the chunk they take out of paychecks?
Just one more thing. Most animals will respond to stress by not having babies. Some, like rats and cockroaches, continue to increase. They cannibalize.
How’s that Affordable Care Act working out for ya?
This has nothing to do with the ACA. Protests and strikes by health care workers happened long before that.
On the upside: We dropped health care. At 1000 dollars each, it was clear we had to make a choice. Taxes and food were a no brainer. The result is, we had to self diagnose. I don’t deny that a radical change in diet does not help all the peeps, all the time. But we were lucky, I guess.
I won’t buy health “care”. I find the phrase ludicrous as most of my doctors were quacks. I’ve met real doctors, what I was handed at Kaiser was uncaring list tickers. My husband received worse. He lowered his cholesterol through diet and was met with anger rather than praise. The quack wanted to write a prescription instead. We will take our chances, and live like our grand parents did. God willing.
I wonder what would happen if more people dropped their insurance.
Perhaps the insurance companies would get the message and reduce their obscene rates.
If you get in a wreck you can always GO FUND ME like everyone else
My Father had 6 kids in the 50’s and no insurance and we are still here and more cautious than most..
@AuntBarbara:
More people were uninsured before Obama, and the health insurers still charged high premiums and didn’t care if you dropped the plans.
Or go to county and let us pay for it.
AuntB: Yes, my grandparents were just fine without Health Ins.
We are reasonably careful. Death is certain it’s just a matter of when.
Sounds like Kaiser is taking lessons from AT&T. Make money hand over fist, but few of that gets down to the people who MAKE the company in pay and benefits. If it wasn’t for unions, we wouldn’t have a lot of the benefits we enjoy today.
Kaiser needs to put profits back in to their hospitals and workers instead of subsidizing housing in Oakland.
Excuse me, I never used multiple names!
Wow so let m get this straight
People working in unions complaining about the pay ? Hmmm
Second the people vote dem to appease union leaders and secure their money
Third the people vote dem …who have brought in bums and illegals and low income to the state for political gains
Fourth now these dem marching unionists are complaining about lower paid workers …what
You dem voters are promoting and voting for low income and illegals
But then complain they are taking jobs WOW
Be informed and not a dem voting robot
Really.
Not rocket science here
Voting to get yours is ok
But voting to ensure you lose jobs to lowincome is not ok
LOL
Just bad politics
I love how the Union always say we’re doing this for our Patients, when in reality it’s about $$ in their pockets, if you ever wonder why Health Care is expensive, Sweet Heart Labor deals are why, I wish I had an answer on how to elevate this strangle hold on the Consumer
No sweetheart deals with Unions aren’t why – it’s big Pharma and the Insurance companies – LOL, wait until they don’t have to cover pre-existing conditions anymore or charge sick people 5 times the premiums so they can’t afford it – Soylent Green anyone? My family went through a medical bankruptcy – wasn’t pretty.
@commoncents
This “insurance is at fault” stuff doesn’t really apply to Kaiser, does it? After all, it’s an integrated system, which runs both the insurance and care arms. The real problem is its interesting structure with non-profit umbrella and for-profit medical groups underneath.
Also I’m not sure that sweetheart deals with Unions are entirely blameless. CA is the only state with mandated nurse-to-patient ratio, passed as law in 1999 and enacted in 2004. The TV was blanketed with their ads about how it’s all about patients and patients only.
15 years later we know the results: nurse staffing has increased, health care costs went up. But quality of care did not improve. And that’s why CA remains the ONLY state with mandated nurse-to-patient ratio – similar measure in MA failed.
My sympathy with your family about medical bankruptcy. Having a serious illness in a family is hard enough without the financial burden that comes with it.
Caught an SEIU crony on KTVU.
Out of one end of the mouth, he is saying “it’s about patient care,” and out of the other, he is saying “what about the Kaiser gardeners?”
The only result of Obamacare is that we are all paying MORE for WORSE care.
Can it not be both?
Why can’t we have better patient care AND pay the gardeners a living wage?
I personally would like my gardeners (if I was rich enough to have one on retainer) to have good skills and do a proper job. Wouldn’t you?
That only happens when workers feel like they are being treated fairly.
If you want to pay “less” for jobs you deem unworthy of the money being paid, your going to have a turn around rate that will leave customers (or the public) with less than quality work.
Gardeners are for the entitled. Leafblowers are detrimental. Do you own yard work and reduce stress and save money!
From the videos I saw of their protest, I’d say most of those threatening to strike could reduce their living expenses “bigly” just by pushing themselves away from the table. Pretty shocking that a “health maintenance organization” employs so many morbidly obese individuals to administer “health care” when they don’t appear to “care” about their own “health.” Kaiser used to focus on “prevention.” It looks now like they have focused on massive and frequent food consumption. One can understand the detour when one considers they are really only “practicing.” When they get it right, I guess they’ll let you know.
I have often thought daily visits to a gym would eliminate the need for bags full of medicine.
No clue where the number of 1000 workers came from it’s way more then that.
Kaiser wants to outsource jobs and pay lower wages to new hires.
Hey you can be the secretary for the big boy at Kaiser work 4 days a week and make 6 figures.
Oh yeah thank a union member for labore day
I am in the Kaiser family but am not in one of those unions going on strike. Kaiser pays fair wages but wants to outsource most jobs and pay minimum wage yet their top CEO’s receive millions in bonuses. The employees are not striking for more money, they want to keep their jobs. The last RN strike was about patient care not money. They want to get rid of the groundskeepers too by hiring and minimum wage worker. Some of you complain about the care/cleanliness/mental health/wait times/food/etc. just wait and see what happens when the outsource at min wage!