Approximately 4,000 Kaiser Permanente mental health professionals began a five-day strike on Monday at facilities throughout the state, including several in the Bay Area.
Psychologists, therapists, psychiatric nurses and other healthcare professionals who are members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers are striking to demand that Kaiser fix what they say is a broken mental health
system that leaves patients waiting months for appointments and its therapists overwhelmed with crushing caseloads.
Picket lines are scheduled to be in place from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. each day this week in front of selected Kaiser facilities.
Picketing occurred on Monday at the San Francisco Medical Center at 2425 Geary Blvd., the Santa Clara Medical Center at 700/710 Lawrence Expressway in Santa Clara and the Tantau Medical Offices at 19000 Homestead
Road in Cupertino.
On Tuesday, picketers will start gathering at the Oakland Medical Center at 3600 Broadway at 6 a.m. and at about 11 a.m. strikers and their supporters will march to the Kaiser Oakland Headquarters at 1 Kaiser Plaza, where there will be a rally at noon.
Union officials said in a statement that Kaiser clinicians have been working without a contract for more than a year.
They said Kaiser has unlawfully demanded that clinicians drop unfair labor practice complaints as part of a settlement proposal and retaliated against clinicians by threatening to withdraw a retroactive cost-of-living wage increase after clinicians rejected an earlier settlement proposal.
In a survey earlier this year, 77 percent of Kaiser’s clinicians reported that, on a daily basis, they must schedule their patients’ return appointments further into the future than is clinically appropriate. Nearly
three quarters reported that appointment wait times for their patients have grown longer over the past two years.
In a statement on Monday afternoon, Michelle J. Gaskill-Hames, senior vice president of hospital and health plan operations for Kaiser Permanente Northern California, said, “Despite the National Union of
Healthcare Workers’ decision to strike, it is important our members know that our hospitals and medical offices remain open.”
Gaskill-Hames said, “Our commitment to patients comes first. We are working hard to deliver the high-quality care and services members and patients need. Anyone in need of urgent mental health or other care will
receive the services they require. Where necessary, we will call members to reschedule some non-urgent appointments.”
Gaskill-Hames said, “We have been jointly working with an external, neutral mediator to help us reach a collective bargaining agreement with the NUHW. The mediator recently delivered a proposed compromise to both
sides that we are seriously considering; however, the union has rejected it and announced plans to strike instead of working through the mediated process.”
She said, “This is NUHW’s sixth noticed strike within a single year. We believe NUHW’s repeated call for short strikes is disruptive to patient access, operational care and service and is frankly irresponsible.”
Gaskill-Hames said, “A strike does nothing to help our important work to advance care, nor does it help us achieve a mutually beneficial contract. All it does is put our members in the middle of bargaining, which is not fair to them, especially during the holidays when rates of depression can spike and our patients are counting on their caregivers to be there.”
She said, “Rather than calling for a strike, we ask that NUHW’s leadership continue to engage with the mediator and Kaiser Permanente to resolve these issues.”
I wonder how much care all the Kaiser health care patients will receive during the strike? Seems like cutting off your nose to spite your face. Is there no other way to force Kaiser bosses to fix their broken system – bad press; lawsuits; complaints with state overseers?
The good news is that In the long run, a one week reduction in the services available should not affect things for patients. The timing a week before Christmas seems less than ideal as I’ve read that it’s a peak time for depression. However, I suspect people at the worse parts of depression are also less likely to reach out for help and so maybe this week and next tends to be quieter than average. Hopefully, people will reach out when they are feeling a bit better.
The article says “Anyone in need of urgent mental health or other care will receive the services they require.” Unfortunately, the mental health pages on their web site have not been updated to mention that services are limited this week, to provide guidance on what would be considered “urgent” and what to do or call.
I signed in using my Kaiser account and again there are no alerts other than one about a data breach where personal data was accessed. That notice has been there for about a month.
Strike $ strike $ strike $$$
I’m guessing that paying them more will make all the problems go away.
Someone correct me if I’m wrong– but didn’t this also happen about a year ago? A strike by mental health workers. It’s one of those professions where a strike, in my opinion, just makes everything worse.
Incidentally, where I work, we haven’t received a raise in 5 years. I’m sympathetic to others wanting a wage increase, but at the same time, not everyone is getting what they want.
There is probably no cushier health care provider to work for than Kaiser. I’m not sure what these employees are complaining about.
The Golstar model for Medicare for all. No thanks
I know 2 people; one had an appointment in Concord on Monday and one an appointment in Vallejo yesterday, neither experienced any issues…. Striking workers can be replaced!
make that 3…. the week is over, they’ve lost a weeks pay…. Oh… but it was a good cause.