More than 31,000 nurses and health care professionals across California and Hawaii entered their fourth week of an unfair labor practice strike against Kaiser Permanente.
The workers, members of UNAC/UHCP, an AFSCME affiliate, are holding the line for better conditions for both providers and patients. This includes safer staffing levels and ensuring that patients get access to timely, quality care.
UNAC/UHCP members report that Kaiser frequently double- and triple-books patients for appointment times, leading to delays that prevent patients from seeing their care providers for months at a time.
"I've been here 38 years. This is not the same Kaiser I came to,” said Marla Hunt, a registered nurse at Kaiser West Lost Angeles and a member of her local bargaining team. “The Kaiser I came to, they cared about the patients, they cared about the nurses. They cared if you were happy at work and wanted to come back the next day. But now, they don't care. They want us to work at the top of our scope and do more with less. And the patients are the ones who suffer.”
While Kaiser demands workers do more with less and claims it cannot afford to safely staff its hospitals, Kaiser's own financial reporting shows that the health care giant made over $9.3 billion in profits last year. Additionally, Kaiser currently has more than $76 billion in reserves.
Four weeks into the strike, UNAC/UHCP members are staying strong by looking to one another for support.
"Solidarity has been our strongest ally,” said Giana Valenzula, a registered nurse at Kaiser West Los Angeles. “We've been encouraging each other, communicating with each other, and reminding each other of what we're fighting for.”
As they continue to fight back, Hunt is thinking about the next generation.
“I’m fighting for the nurses in the future,” she said, “because if we don’t fight now, it’s going to get worse.”