More than 31,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers in California and Hawaii have been on an open-ended strike since Jan. 26. They’re members of United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP).
The strike began a month after Kaiser on Dec. 15 announced it was halting bargaining with the Alliance because UNAC/UHCP was planning to release a damaging report. The union went ahead and released it anyway on Jan. 14. Entitled “Profits over Patients,” it makes the case that Kaiser has abandoned its founding mission and moved toward profit, expansion, and Wall Street-style asset accumulation.
UNAC/UHCP bargains on its own and also as part of a national union coalition of Kaiser unions called the Alliance of Health Care Unions. Roughly 44,600 workers in Alliance unions had earlier struck for five days last October. That strike included members of Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP) who work at Kaiser.
The unions are proposing raises totaling 25% over four years to catch them up for inflation; Kaiser is proposing 21.5% over the same time frame. Union leaders say Kaiser can afford the larger raises: It has $66 billion in reserves, posted net income of $9.3 billion last year and $12.9 billion the year before.
Last month, Kaiser said all open bargaining topics with the Alliance would be addressed at local bargaining tables — meaning without a national contract.
“It is the employer’s attempt to divide and conquer, and it feels very much like union-busting,” OFNHP President Sarina Roher told the Labor Press.
READ UNAC/UHCP’s report here: Profit over Patients: Kaiser Permanente’s Shift in
Institutional Priorities and the Dire Consequences to Health Care
