As negotiations continue, Kaiser Permanente health care workers returned to the picket line Thursday, pressing for changes they said are needed to protect staff and patient care.
The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals represents around 31,000 workers in California and Hawaii. They said the dispute isn’t just about pay, but about staffing levels they say are unsafe, especially in high-risk care settings.
“I need to have enough people present that are able to catch a baby, get them situated, stabilized. It’s a high-stress situation, but it’s also an unsafe situation,” said Elisabeth Cochran, a labor and delivery nurse at Kaiser.
“When you’re out there having a baby, you have a high risk of hemorrhage, you can get infections, there’s a lot of things that happen in a very short amount of time when babies are coming out,” said Cochran.
In a statement, Kaiser Permanente said its nurses already earn 16 to 25 percent more than their peers and that its hospitals exceed state staffing requirements. But workers on the picket line said those numbers don’t reflect daily conditions inside facilities.
“We're dealing with critical medications, assessing, running, labs. Basically, addressing really serious issues, but we don't have the staff to do it,” said Desiree Nack, a Kaiser registered nurse who cares for critical care patients.
Kaiser said it has offered what it calls the strongest compensation package in its national bargaining history, totaling roughly a 30 percent pay increase over the length of the contract.
The health system said union wage demands would raise payroll costs by about 3 billion and make health care less affordable for members.
“Kaiser increases their wages, their membership prices, for their patients every year, regardless, not just during contract year when we’re trying to fight for our contract,” said Cochran.
The hospital is preparing for a possible second open-ended strike starting Monday, involving pharmacy workers and clinical lab scientists. The system has already alerted patients about possible disruptions next week.
