Kaiser Health Care Workers Launch Historic Five-Day, Multi-State Strike

Unionized health care workers have begun a historic five-day, multi-state strike outside Kaiser Permanente hospitals, demanding safer staffing levels as well as better pay and benefits — an action that Kaiser described as “unnecessary” and “disruptive,” Catherine Ho reported for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Actions are planned at about 20 Kaiser locations across the state, most in Southern California, with others scheduled in Hawaii and Oregon later in the week. (Photo: Kaiser Permanente) 

In the Bay Area, members of the United Nurses Association of California/Union of Health Care Professionals marched outside Kaiser’s main hospital in Oakland, where about 300 people were on the picket line at 7 a.m., according to union spokesperson Aaron Gallant. Strikes were also held in Santa Clara and Roseville, Northern California.

Similar actions were planned at about 20 Kaiser locations across the state, most in Southern California, with others scheduled in Hawaii and Oregon later in the week.

The mood outside Kaiser Oakland was upbeat Tuesday morning, as hundreds of workers marched along Broadway holding signs that read “Patients Before Profits — Pay Us Fairly,” “On Strike for Our Patients,” and “Skeleton Crews Can’t Heal Bodies.”

Music played from loudspeakers, some workers brought their dogs, and passing motorists honked in solidarity.