Kaiser mental health workers strike begins
Workers rallied outside Kaiser hospitals in San Diego and Los Angeles on Monday morning, beginning an “open-ended” strike by Kaiser mental health workers across Southern California.
Smaller demonstrations were also planned for Kaiser properties in Fontana and Anaheim, and a two-week list of locations shows that the election organized by the National Union of Healthcare Workers will go south, in Riverside, Woodland Hills, Irvine and Baldwin Park Tuesday. , then to Fontana, Antelope Valley, Downey and back to San Diego Medical Center in Clairemont on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Because the strike affects mental health workers, staffed hospital facilities, including emergency departments, are not affected, and outpatient services are not provided at Kaiser medical offices.
Kaiser said in a statement Monday morning that “its members will continue to have access to individual appointments during the strike,” but it’s unclear whether the health care giant will follow through on the promise. how is it, since most of it is normal. mental health workers will be navigating tricky paths.
Medical providers often bring in part-time workers to fill shifts left by striking workers. It was unclear from Kaiser’s statement Monday whether that approach was used in the current situation.
For weeks, the labor union has been hitting Kaiser hard with a federal settlement and a $50 million fine “requiring Kaiser Permanente to take corrective action to address deficiencies in the plan’s delivery and health care delivery.” good morals to the subscribers.”
In its latest strike statement, the union said “Kaiser employs less than 40 percent of its mental health workers who provide training in its Southern California region, which stretches from San Diego to Bakersfield to beyond its Northern California location.”
The union says Kaiser is struggling to retain mental health workers, despite increased hiring, and is pushing for these workers to be given pensions without better pay and more administrative time to process paperwork. which come with documentation of health care provided. to patients during the appointment.
But Kaiser said the work stoppage was “absolutely unnecessary” and accused the union of “slow negotiations,” essentially leading to a strike.
Kaiser says it’s giving mental health workers an 18% raise over the life of a new four-year contract and six hours of planning time each week.
“These six hours are in addition to the two hours set aside for meetings and another five hours of administrative time already built into the meetings,” Kaiser’s statement says. “On the other hand, the union’s proposal would mean that a full-time doctor would spend almost half of his time – more than 19 hours a week – not seeing patients.”
The categories of workers involved in the strike include: psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, addiction medicine counselors, licensed clinical counselors, and marriage and family therapists.
When workers gathered Monday, Kaiser worked to make sure the community understood they were still working to do business. More negotiation sessions, the company said, are scheduled for Wednesday and Friday.
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