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Health care workers in San Diego demonstrated as the Kaiser Permanente union, which represents 75,000 employees, begins a three-day strike across the United States. Reuters/Mike Blake
The health workers’ strike is now in its eighth day, with negotiations between Kaiser Permanente and the National Health Workers Union breaking down.
“If Kaiser is serious about reaching an agreement, we remain open to resuming negotiations,” said Jim Clifford, a licensed clinical counselor with Kaiser in San Diego.
“Everything we’ve proposed, Kaiser already provides to nearly all of its employees in California. If Kaiser doesn’t start treating mental health professionals the same as other employees, the mental health care system will cannot fulfill its obligation to change.”
No bargaining sessions are scheduled as the strike enters its second week.
Kaiser officials say the organization has invested more than $1 billion since 2020 to expand mental health capacity in California, including hiring therapists, adding resources and reducing patient wait times. .
But the union says most of the investment has been concentrated in the northern part of the state, and shortages persist in Southern California. According to NUHW, Kaiser has about one therapist for every 3,000 Kaiser members, compared to one for every 2,000 in Northern California.
This ratio limits the time therapists have to answer patient calls and emails, develop treatment plans and prepare appointments, leading to burnout and turnover among newly hired therapists, the union says. claims.
The union added that a quarter of the 1,508 mental health professionals employed in Kaiser’s Southern California region from January 2021 to September 2024 have already left their positions.
The picket line begins at 8 a.m. and continues until 2 p.m. On Monday, workers will picket the following locations:
-San Diego Medical Center, 9455 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
–Anaheim Medical Center, 3440 East La Palma Ave., Anaheim
–Fontana Medical Center, 9961 Sierra Ave., Fontana
–Los Angeles Medical Center, 4867 W. Sunset Blvd.
Lunchtime gatherings with community leaders and elected officials will be held at each venue.
Picketing is planned for Tuesday at medical centers in Riverside, Woodland Hills, Irvine and Baldwin Park.
The union said affected workers include psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, addiction medicine counselors, licensed clinical counselors, marriage and family therapists, and others in “hospitals, clinics, Our clinics provide behavioral health care to Kaiser’s 4.8 million members.” [and] Home health care settings from San Diego to Bakersfield. ”
The labor dispute comes a year after Kaiser reached a $50 million settlement with state regulators. Kaiser argued that the medical giant’s mental health care system lacks adequate staffing, making it difficult for patients to receive care.
Kaiser officials said in a statement that the health system will continue negotiations “until this agreement is reached.” But the union has been focused on a strike since negotiations began, “slowly moving the bargaining process forward, including on the very issues the union identified as key to sealing the deal,” the newspaper said.
According to Kaiser’s statement, “It is clear that their strategy all along was to move to a strike.” “They have threatened to go on strike even before negotiations began in July, and have acted without any sense of urgency, refusing to accept or fight back against the strong offer Kaiser Permanente has put forward. The union has proposed a proposal that could result in full-time therapists spending no more than 40% of their work week seeing patients.
Kaiser said the union presented a proposal that includes an 18% pay increase over four years, and also “strengthens the comprehensive benefits available to mental health professionals and gives therapists more time to plan and prepare non-patients.” The plan was to provide more time to the public.
Kaiser said the strike was “totally unnecessary and unfortunately not surprising.” NUHW leaders have been threatening to strike since before we began negotiations in July. Despite a strong offer from Kaiser Permanente, union negotiations have been slow. The union proposals at the table are overreaching and unreasonable.
“Unions are not asking for more time to care for patients; they need more funding to reduce the amount of time therapists spend seeing patients.The key issue is that unions The union wants therapists to take away from direct patient care nearly half the time that full-time therapists do not see patients, or at least 19 hours a week. “This is unacceptable and will significantly reduce patients’ access to mental health care appointments.”
Union officials said they are seeking an agreement similar to the one reached with Kaiser mental health workers in Northern California, who went on a 10-week strike two years ago.
The union is calling on Kaiser to guarantee full-time therapists seven hours a week to perform patient care tasks such as answering patient calls and emails, developing treatment plans, communicating with social services agencies and preparing appointments. There is. Union officials say Mr. Kaiser is only guaranteeing four hours a week.
The union is also seeking pay increases to bring it on par with non-mental health workers, who the union claims earn 40 percent more. The union also said pensions were abolished for newly hired mental health professionals 10 years ago, even though pensions still exist for other workers, from doctors to janitors. They are also demanding that their pension be reinstated.
The union contract with Kaiser expired on September 30th.
City News Service contributed to this report.
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