Posted on 10/04/23
| News Source: NPR
Health care workers at hundreds of Kaiser Permanente hospitals and medical facilities across the U.S. walked off the job on Wednesday morning, in an effort to ramp up pressure on their employer to fix a staffing shortage that has intensified since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Over 75,000 workers — including nurses, emergency department technicians, pharmacists and hundreds of others — went on strike in California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Virginia and Washington, D.C. It is the largest health care strike in history, according to the unions.
They're the latest group of crucial workers to strike over work conditions and pay this year, after the Hollywood writers and the ongoing United Auto Workers strike, among others.
Most Kaiser workers will be on strike for three days, until Saturday morning, except those in Virginia and Washington D.C., who will be on strike for 24 hours.
The walkout is driven by a short-staffing crisis that workers say has led to tough working conditions that make it increasingly difficult to retain Kaiser employees, while also simultaneously leading to a deterioration in the quality of care for Kaiser's patients.
About 11% of union positions were vacant in April of this year, according to Kaiser data obtained by the unions.
"Health care workers choose this profession because it's a passion for them. It's a calling," said Caroline Lucas, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. "And folks don't feel comfortable staying at jobs where they don't feel like they can give the best patient care possible."