Kaiser Mental Health Care Workers on the Picket Line in Oakland

On December 11, picketers in Oakland joined approximately 4,000 psychologists, therapists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and addiction medicine specialists in a strike against Kaiser facilities throughout California. Kaiser Permanente is the state’s largest health care provider, and for five days, December 10-14, over 100 Kaiser clinics and hospitals were affected by strike activities.

Strikers are demanding that Kaiser step up levels of mental health care staffing. Most striking employees are members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW), which is in in contract negotiations with Kaiser. Some members of the California Nurses Association joined the picket in Oakland in solidarity.

Mental health care employees said they are affected by the long waits their patients must endure between appointments; this is in contrast to the prompt scheduling generally experienced by patients with physical illnesses. They said that in mental health care Kaiser has only full time clinician for every 3,000 patients, a ratio that has not improved in the last three years. The strikers took the week off without pay or strike pay.