75,000 union health care workers at Kaiser Permanente go on strike
'Making Money' host Charles Payne discusses the impact of the expansion of the UAW strikes.
More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente employees walked off the job on Wednesday in what their union representatives say would be the largest strike of health care workers in U.S. history.
A coalition of labor unions representing the workers notified the company last month that it plans to carry out a three-day strike starting Wednesday at 6:00 a.m. PT if a new contract is not reached in time. The previous contract expired Saturday.
The strike will impact hundreds of hospitals spanning several states, with picket lines in California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C.
Health care workers take part in a rally at Kaiser Permanente's main medical facility in Los Angeles on Sept. 4, 2023. (Dania Maxwell / Los Angeles Times via Getty Images / Getty Images)
The health care workers' unions are calling for increased staffing levels at Kaiser Permanente hospitals, saying the facilities are in the midst of a «short-staffing crisis» that is unsafe and could lead to patients facing dangerously long wait times, mistaken diagnoses and neglect. The unions also accuse the hospital conglomerate of committing unfair labor practices.
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«Kaiser executives are refusing to listen to us and are bargaining in bad faith over the solutions we need to end the Kaiser short-staffing crisis,» said Jessica Cruz, a licensed vocational nurse at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, in a prepared statement.
«I see my patients’ frustrations when I have to rush them and hurry on to my next patient. That’s not the care I want to give,»
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