Kaiser, SEIU clash in public ahead of labor hearing

The federal government in March will weigh in on a labor dispute between Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente and a coalition affiliated with the SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West union. The National Labor Relations Board hearing will mark the culmination of months of political drama between a major health system and the controversial union.

The SEIU has battled with the state’s hospitals for years through voter ballot initiatives targeting health systems’ profits.

A complaint filed last May by the SEIU-affiliated Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions came after a major union rift pushed the SEIU out of labor negotiations. Last week, the politics of the dispute escalated as SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West heralded the hearing announcement as a federal indictment against the health system.

Kaiser claimed the way the SEIU has framed the hearing is “misleading and inaccurate.”