Kaiser avoids SoCal strike; Bay Area unions still plan Monday walkout

Health care provider Kaiser Permanente has reached a tentative agreement for a four-year contract with unions covering about 50,000 employees, staving off most planned strikes that were expected to affect departments mainly in Southern California and Oregon starting Monday.

The agreement came after some 35,000 Kaiser workers said they would walk off the job this week, including nurses, midwives, physical therapists and others across more than 300 facilities in Southern California. That prompted Kaiser to alert its members to an indefinite slowdown in services.

But in Northern California, members of the Guild of Professional Pharmacists — which is not among the 22 unions comprising the Alliance of Health Care

Unions subject to the agreement — were still expected to strike starting Monday, causing shutdowns of Bay Area outpatient pharmacies, a Kaiser spokesperson confirmed. The pharmacy guild did not respond to a request for comment.

Another union, Local 39 Operating Engineers, also s not party to the agreement, according to the Kaiser spokesperson. A call to the union offices was not immediately returned Saturday.

“KP has not been informed of any changes to Pharmacy Guild or Local 39 Operating Engineers strike plans and our contingency plans remain in effect,” Kaiser spokesperson Karl Sonkin said in a statement. “We are continuing to bargain in good faith with the Guild for Professional Pharmacists and Local 39 Operating Engineers and hope to reach agreements very soon.”

Both union representatives and Kaiser executives cheered the broader agreement Saturday, which came after about five months of bargaining that began in April and saw the removal of the health care giant’s proposal for a controversial two-tiered payment system that would have slashed wages for new hires.

“This agreement will mean patients will continue to receive the best care and Alliance members will have the best jobs,” said Alliance’s Executive Director Hal