Kaiser Permanente, unions reach tentative deal after strike by 75,000 workers

Unions representing 75,000 health care workers have reached a tentative agreement with industry giant Kaiser Permanente following a strike over wages and staffing levels, the parties announced Friday.

Details of the agreement were not immediately released, but both sides said a full announcement was forthcoming.

The three-day strike last week involving 75,000 workers in multiple states officially ended last Saturday and workers returned to their jobs in Kaiser’s hospitals and clinics that serve nearly 13 million Americans.

“The frontline healthcare workers of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions are excited to have reached a tentative agreement with Kaiser Permanente as of this morning,” the coalition posted Friday morning. “We are thankful for the instrumental support of Acting US Labor Secretary Julie Su.”

Kaiser Permanente, based in Oakland confirmed the deal in a social media post.

Bargaining sessions had been scheduled for this week, the unions said.

The strike for three days in California — where most of Kaiser’s facilities are located — as well as in Colorado, Oregon and Washington was a last resort after Kaiser executives ignored the short-staffing crisis worsened by the coronavirus pandemic, union officials said.

Among the wide range of workers who went on strike were licensed vocational nurses, X-ray technicians, surgical technicians, phlebotomists, medical assistants, pharmacy technicians and respiratory therapists, as well as support staff such as housekeepers and food service workers.

Workers said they were protesting “bad faith bargaining” by Kaiser executives as unions negotiate over wages and other issues that labor leaders said had fueled a chronic staffing crisis that strains employees and jeopardizes patient care. Unions also said the raises Kaiser was offering wouldn’t keep up with rising costs.

Days after the strike ended, the unions warned that another, even bigger strike could be in the works from Nov. 1 to Nov. 8, after a union contract covering workers in the Seattle area expires. The tentative deal, if ratified, is expected to avert such a strike.

Their goal was to bring the problems to the public’s consciousness for support, according to the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions. Some 180 workers from facilities in Virginia and Washington, D.C., also picketed but only on Wednesday.

“No health care worker wants to go on strike,” Caroline Lucas, the coalition’s executive director, said Thursday. “I hope that the last few days have helped escalate this issue.”

The company warned the work stoppage could cause delays in people getting appointments and scheduling non-urgent procedures.

Unions representing Kaiser workers in August asked for a $25 hourly minimum wage, as well as increases of 7% each year in the first two years and 6.25% each year in the two years afterward.

Kaiser, which turned a $2.1 billion profit for the quarter, said in a statement last week that it proposed minimum hourly wages between $21 and $23 depending on the location. The company said it also completed hiring 10,000 more people, adding to the 51,000 workers the hospital system has brought on board since 2022.

Union members say understaffing is boosting the hospital system’s profits but hurting patients, and executives have been bargaining in bad faith during negotiations.

The workers’ last contract was negotiated in 2019, before the pandemic.

The Associated Press and the Los Angeles Times contributed to this story.