More than 75,000 healthcare employees are set to strike for 3 days in October over what they are saying are bad-faith negotiations by Kaiser Permanente executives relating to staffing points, their unions stated Friday.
The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions issued a 10-day unfair-labor-practice strike discover to Kaiser on Friday, the final day of scheduled bargaining talks earlier than a Sept. 30 contract expiration. The strike, which might be the most important healthcare strike in historical past, is ready for Oct. 4 to Oct. 6.
Among the unions’ calls for are larger wages, a $25 minimal wage throughout the board and improved staffing ranges.
“Kaiser executives refuse to acknowledge how much patient care has deteriorated or how much the frontline healthcare workforce and patients are suffering because of the Kaiser short-staffing crisis,” Dave Regan, the president of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, stated in a press release Friday.
See: Kaiser healthcare employees poised to strike over employees shortages if talks fail: ‘I’ve by no means seen affected person care get to this degree’
Henry Perez, a unit assistant within the intensive-care unit on the Kaiser Permanente in Modesto, Calif., instructed MarketWatch on Friday: “It’s unfortunate it has come to this. Kaiser should be ashamed of themselves for not coming to the bargaining table in good faith.”
Kaiser spokesperson Steve Shivinsky stated Friday that “a strike notice does not mean a strike will happen.” “For the last 26 years of our historic labor-management partnership, we have reached agreements with the Coalition every time, with no strikes,” Shivinsky stated.
The spokesperson additionally stated that Kaiser has employed 22,000 individuals up to now this yr, and that Kaiser’s “philosophy is to provide pay that is up to 10% above market.”
The October strike could possibly be adopted by a wider strike in November by all 85,000 Kaiser healthcare employees represented by the coalition if no general contract is reached, SEIU-UHW spokesperson Renee Saldaña instructed MarketWatch on Friday. Because of points with contract timelines, not all employees are scheduled to hitch the October strike.
The union coalition represents most different Kaiser employees who will not be registered nurses or medical doctors, together with surgical technologists, licensed nursing assistants, occupational therapists and administrative employees.
The unfair-labor-practice strike will have an effect on lots of of Kaiser services in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Source web site: www.marketwatch.com
