Tentative labor agreement could end Kaiser strike
Union members to vote on whether to approve contract or resume picketing
Kaiser Permanente and the union representing its mental health clinicians have reached a tentative agreement on a threeyear contract, potentially bringing an end to a nearly six-month strike if workers back the agreement.
The National Union of Healthcare Workers, which represents about 50 Kaiser Permanente psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and chemical dependency counselors in Hawaii, said Thursday that members will review the tentative agreement and vote on whether to ratify it.
Voting is expected to wrap up Saturday, and details of the agreement will be available afterwards, the union said. Picket lines were halted Thursday, and therapists are tentatively planning to return to work on Tuesday.
“Kaiser Permanente has the deepest appreciation and gratitude for our mental health professionals and the extraordinary care they provide to our members, so we are pleased to have reached a tentative agreement with NUHW,” Kaiser said in a statement on Thursday. “Our mental health staff represented by NUHW will now vote on the new agreement and we look forward to hearing from the union regarding ratifications status.”
Mental health clinicians, who said they’ve been without a contract since 2018, launched an open-ended strike in August, voicing concerns about understaffing, high case loads and delayed services for patients, some of whom were having to wait months for appointments, the workers said. Union members on Maui, Oahu and Hawaii island took turns on the picket lines in front of their respective clinics.
“I would say that there’s mixed feelings,” Maui psychologist Rachel Kaya said of potentially returning to the job. “Of course I am very much looking forward to getting back to work with my patients. We all wanted a contract. That’s what we have fought so hard for the last four years, and especially the last 25 weeks on strike.”
But, personally, Kaya said she’s “deeply disappointed” with Kaiser’s response to the mental health needs of patients during the strike, saying that patients have told her their appointments were canceled and that they were instead offered help from out of state or online, which is not always clinically appropriate for some patients.
While she wasn’t sure how many appointments had been canceled because she’s been out of the clinic, she pointed to the example of her own caseload, which prior to the strike included 150 total patients and a schedule of seven patients a day. Her colleagues have similar workloads, and she worries that many patients who are suffering from mental health issues but have less urgent cases are slipping through the cracks.
Kaiser has countered that it has worked to fill the gaps during the strike. About half of its mental health staff scheduled on a given day are on the job caring
for members, and Kaiser psychiatrists, clinical managers and other licensed clinicians also “have stepped in to meet with people needing care,” according to a labor update on its website.
“We have also added more than 65 community providers since the beginning of the strike and dozens of existing providers have increased the number of Kaiser Permanente patients they see to help meet the needs of our members,” Kaiser said. “Additionally, we have launched contracts with six large national therapy vendors to expand our capacity to refer patients externally.”
Kaya said 12 clinicians on Maui were on strike as of Thursday. During the 172-day strike, some stayed afloat financially by working other jobs, such as offering therapy online or in person or taking clerical jobs in an office.
“I personally have been getting by on savings and the generosity of our strike fund that we have arranged as a collective,” Kaya said. “And I can tell you as a group, that some of my teammates have taken second or third jobs, some have pulled money out of their retirement account, and just doing what they can to pay Hawaii prices without a salary.”
But, Kaya said, the strike has been worth it “because of the patients, because we have the most amazing community here on Maui, and they deserve mental health care.”
When asked whether she thought the agreement would be ratified, Kaya said,
“we have the full range of people and their opinions, so I think we’ll just have to wait and see.”
Matthew Artz, a spokesperson for the union, said Thursday that if members vote against the contract that the bargaining committee has recommended, the strike would resume.