California Kaiser workers vote to strike

Kaiser Permanente workers in California are planning to strike in early October over the integrated not-forprofit health system’s alleged unfair labor practices. About 98% of nearly 38,000 votes cast by Kaiser employees represented by the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions supported a strike. The workers are calling for Kaiser to mend the worker-management partnership; ensure safe staffing and appropriate use of technology; and provide wages and benefits that can support families. The coalition is also calling for more financial transparency.

Strike authorization votes by other groups of California Kaiser workers as well as employees in Colorado, Maryland, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and the District of Columbia are slated to run through mid-September. The California faction was the first to vote out of groups representing more than 80,000 Kaiser workers.

Kaiser said in a statement that union leadership has decided to use the threat of a strike as a bargaining tactic, designed to divide employees and mischaracterize Kaiser Permanente’s position, even though most of the contracts don’t expire until October. The union also posed misleading ballot questions, the company said.

A strike vote does not mean that a strike is imminent, although it does place Kaiser Permanente in the position of having to spend millions of dollars preparing for the threat of a strike event, Kaiser added.