On Wednesday, an estimated 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers across five states and Washington DC walked out in the largest health care workers strike in US history. After several days of negotiations over fair labor practices and higher wages, company and union members failed to reach a compromise.
Both groups “are still at the bargaining table, having worked through the night in an effort to reach an agreement,” the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions said in a statement, noting there “has been a lot of progress.”
Last month, health care workers threatened to go on strike if Kaiser didn’t agree to increased pay and solutions to the ongoing staff shortage, among other demands, before the union contract’s expiration on Saturday. While the strike is set to last for three days, union members say that they’re prepared to extend it to November if necessary.
“This is a difficult decision, and we know it will require sacrifices of us all,” wrote the Coalition. “but Kaiser executives continue to bargain in bad faith over the solutions we urgently need to the Kaiser short staffing crisis and the safety and well being of our patients and workers is on the line.”
As my colleague, Ruth Murai reported, the hospitals have a contingency plan in place to ensure continued operation.
I have KP as my health provider. A few weeks ago I had a really bad eye infection after doing some wood work. I went in to get it looked at, and they gave me an antibiotic ointment, but said there was a good chance I had developed an infection over and around a small piece of wood in my eye, and I needed to see an opthalmologist asap to get it removed. So they put in a high priority referral and I was told I should call and would be seen in one or two days.
I called when I got home, and the opthalmologist's office said the earliest they could see me was in six weeks. I told them the other doctor said I likely had wood in my eye that would need to be removed, but that didn't change their answer. So I went back to urgent care the next day and this new doctor removed it and gave me a second ointment to use.
Don't get me started on their mental health services. I tried to do an intake and set up recurring appointments with a therapist. After they did the intake and accepted me for therapy, they said the earliest appointment was in six months, to be seen for one hour every six months. So I didn't even bother.
I don't hold any of the medical professionals at fault, there's just not nearly enough of them to provide quality care or any semblance of continuity of care. KP's statements about being fully in compliance with staffing requirements are absolutely Hollywood accounting. They're not even close in reality.
Their CEO died at age 60 of CV causes
60
CEO of a healthcare organization
That golden parachute turns into a golden coffin I guess.
But conservatives told me wait times in healthcare only happen because of socialism. Did they lie to me?