Largest healthcare worker strike in U.S. history will span hundreds of hospitals and facilities across the nation, including Vancouver

More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers in multiple states, including Washington, will go on strike on Wednesday to protest what they claim are unfair labor practices and unsafe staffing levels at hundreds of Kaiser hospitals and facilities across the United States. The strike, which is expected to last for three days, will be the largest healthcare worker strike in U.S. history. 

Healthcare workers are taking the work action to protest what they claim is Kaiser executives’ bad faith bargaining, which they believe is getting in the way of finding solutions to solve the Kaiser short-staffing crisis by investing in its workforce.

“Frontline healthcare workers see patient care in crisis every day. We know that the crisis cannot be solved unless Kaiser executives follow the law and take dramatic action now to solve the crisis by investing in its workforce,” said Megan Mayes, patient access representative,  Westside Medical Center, Hillsboro, Oregon. “We’re prepared to take action to solve the Kaiser short staffing crisis and to keep our patients safe.”

Strike lines will be set up at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and medical office buildings across the country, including California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. A strike line is scheduled to take place at the Cascade Park Medical Offices on Mill Plain Blvd. in east Vancouver.

Jobs affected by the strike include licensed vocational nurses, emergency department technicians, radiology technicians, ultrasound sonographers, teleservice representatives,  respiratory therapists, x-ray technicians, optometrists, certified nursing assistants, dietary services, behavioral health workers, surgical technicians, pharmacists and pharmacy technicians, transporters, home health aides, phlebotomists, medical assistants, dental assistants, call center representatives, and housekeepers, among hundreds of other positions. 

WHAT:       75,000 healthcare workers go on strike at Kaiser Permanente hospitals across the U.S. 

WHEN:       Wednesday, October 4 at 6 a.m.       

WHERE: Locations across Oregon and SW Washington, including:

OREGON and SW WASHINGTON 

• Sunnyside Medical Center – Main Strike Hub (6 a.m.): 10180 SE Sunnyside Rd, Clackamas, OR 97227** (large turnout expected)
• Cascade Park Medical Offices (starts at 7 a.m.): 12607 SE Mill Plain Blvd, Vancouver, WA 98684
• North Lancaster Medical Offices (starts at 7a.m.): 2400 Lancaster Drive NE, Salem, OR 97305
• Kaiser Permanente Longview-Kelso Medical Office (starts at 7a.m.): 1230 7th Ave, Longview, WA 98632

BACKGROUND

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions represents 85,000 Kaiser healthcare workers in seven states and the District of Columbia. In April, the Coalition began its national bargaining process ahead of the September 30th contract expiration. On Sept. 22, Coalition unions representing 75,000 Kaiser healthcare workers gave Kaiser executives 10-day notices for an unfair labor practice strike beginning Oct. 4. The Coalition and Kaiser Permanente last negotiated a contract in 2019, before healthcare workers found themselves on the frontlines of the COVID pandemic that has worsened working conditions and exacerbated a healthcare staffing crisis.

At issue, healthcare workers say, are a series of unfair labor practices related to bargaining in bad faith, along with simmering staff concerns related to unsafe staffing levels that can lead to dangerously long wait times, mistaken diagnosis, and neglect. After years of the COVID pandemic and chronic understaffing, Kaiser healthcare workers are calling on management to provide safe staffing levels.

Workers say that Kaiser is committing unfair labor practices and also that understaffing is boosting Kaiser’s profits but hurting patients. In a recent survey of 33,000 employees, 2/3 of workers said they’d seen care delayed or denied due to short staffing. After three years of the COVID pandemic and chronic understaffing, healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente are calling on management to provide safe staffing levels.

Kaiser has reported ​​$3 billion in profits in just the first six months of this year. Despite being a non-profit organization – which means it pays no income taxes on its earnings and extremely limited property taxes – Kaiser has reported more than $24 billion in profit over the last five years. Kaiser’s CEO was compensated more than $16 million in 2021, and forty-nine executives at Kaiser are compensated more than $1 million annually. Kaiser Permanente has investments of $113 billion in the US and abroad, including in fossil fuels, casinos, for-profit prisons, alcohol companies, military weapons and more.

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions unites more than 85,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente facilities in California, Colorado, Oregon, the District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maryland, Virginia, and Washington.