Kaiser strike
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.
75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers walk off the job. It’s the largest health care worker strike in US history
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.
Kaiser Permanente strike looms: Workers across six states plan to walk out this week
It is the biggest health care strike in U.S. history, according to the unions.
Kaiser, headquartered in Oakland, California, is one of the largest nonprofit health care providers in the United States, serving nearly 13 million patients. Most Kaiser workers who have walked off the job 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.
What this means for patients
The health care provider has said its hospitals and emergency departments will remain open throughout the strike, staffed by physicians and other staff. It said it is onboarding professionals who will service in critical care roles during the strike.
Kaiser has warned patients that non-emergency and elective services may be rescheduled. The organization is expanding its network of pharmacy locations to include community pharmacies, to ensure patients can access medication in the event that outpatient pharmacies temporarily close. Inpatient pharmacies at Kaiser hospitals will stay open.
About 60% of Kaiser employees, including doctors, will still be working throughout the strike, according to the organization.
Short-staffing crisis
These health care professionals are 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.
Their 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.
I don't want to strike"
Kaiser has asked workers to reject calls to walk off the job to prevent harm to patients.
But employees like Brooke El-Amin, who has worked at Kaiser for 21 years, say patient care is already suffering due to staffing shortages. The goal of the strike is to put pressure on Kaiser to improve patient care in the long-run.
"I don't want to strike," El-Amin said. "But I feel like Kaiser is already letting down our patients — they're already letting down the employees."
Keyani Adigun, a clinical pharmacist in Washington D.C., said she struggled throughout the pandemic to keep up with patient demands, as colleagues left Kaiser in droves.
And she said her employer still isn't providing enough resources — more than three years after COVID-19 hit the U.S.
"I hope that Kaiser leadership hears our voices," Adigun said, before joining the picket line. "The harder we work, the less resources we start to see."
