A union representing almost half of Kaiser Permanente Colorado’s employees went on strike Wednesday morning over wages and staffing shortages, with about 3,000 licensed practical nurses, technicians, office workers and others expected to walk out through Friday.
The three-day strike in Colorado is part of a nationwide labor action involving 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers in multiple states.
Ahead of the strike, Kaiser warned members that some “nonurgent appointments and procedures” may be canceled in the event of a walkout, but that patients will be informed and don’t need to call about their appointments.
The contract between Service Employees International Union Local 105 and Kaiser Permanente Colorado expired Saturday, though negotiations continued through Tuesday with the two sides failing to reach a deal.
Union leaders said in a news release Wednesday morning that Kaiser health care workers in Colorado were striking to protest what they termed “Kaiser executives’ bad faith bargaining.”
“Kaiser executives refuse to acknowledge how much patient care has deteriorated or how much the frontline health care workforce and patients are suffering because of the Kaiser short-staffing crisis. We’re taking action because we can’t let this staffing crisis continue,” Charmaine Arellano, a medical assistant at Kaiser’s Lakewood facility, said in a news release.
Kaiser workers in Colorado plan to return to work beginning at 7 a.m. Saturday, according to the union’s informational page on the strike.
Kaiser Permanente Colorado, which is both an insurance and health care provider, employs about 6,800 people. It runs 33 medical offices and has about 500,000 members.
Andrew Sorensen, spokesman for Kaiser Permanente Colorado, said its offices attempted to see more patients ahead of the threatened strike, and would bring in short-term staff to fill the gaps.
The coalition of Kaiser unions also announced members were striking in California, Oregon, Washington, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
In late August, union members voted to authorize a strike for up to two weeks, saying their compensation hadn’t kept up with the cost of living and that they felt understaffing was harming patients. About 99% of those who took part voted in favor of a strike.
Kaiser Permanente Colorado said its pay and benefits were above average for the market, and that the Kaiser divisions already had reached an agreement with the unions to hire about 10,000 more workers nationwide.
In late September, SEIU Local 105 delivered a notice that it could strike for three days, rather than the maximum of two weeks.
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