Headquartered in Oakland, Kaiser Permanente is the state’s largest health care provider. For five days, December 10-14, over 100 Kaiser clinics and hospitals were affected by strike activities as mental health care employees called for the provider to step up levels of staffing. On December 11, picketers in Oakland joined approximately 4,000 psychologists, therapists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and addiction medicine specialists in a strike at Kaiser facilities throughout California.

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.

Kaiser mental health care employees say 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. In mental health care Kaiser has only one full time clinician for every 3,000 patients, a ratio that has not improved in the last three years. The strikers took the week without pay or strike pay. Negotiations resumed on December 17.

Oakland | Fresno | SF

See Also: The Kaiser Suicides And NUHW Strike