Thousands of California nurses, health care workers give 10-day notice

A union symbolizing thousands of Kaiser Permanente staff members sent a 10-day see to one particular of the nation’s major health and fitness care companies Thursday, stating they will go on strike starting Nov. 15.

The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Wellness Treatment Experts are striking over Kaiser Permanente’s proposals to “depress wages for present-day staff members and slash wages for incoming staff in the course of a national wellbeing treatment staffing crisis,” the union said in a news release.

If an arrangement isn’t arrived at by the deadline, some 21,000 registered nurses, pharmacists, midwives, bodily and occupational therapists, nurse practitioners and physician assistants will stop doing the job. The 10-working day detect is expected by California legislation in buy to allow health and fitness amenities to get ready.

Nearly 7,400 users of United Steelworkers Regional 7600 in Southern California and 3,400 customers of Oregon Federation of Nurses and Healthcare Pros will also strike towards Kaiser starting on the identical working day, bringing the overall number of strikers as higher as approximately 32,000 staff.

The strike will have an affect on 366 services in Southern California, which include hospitals and health care facilities in Anaheim, Antelope Valley, Baldwin Park, Downey, Fontana, Harbor City, Irvine, Los Angeles, Ontario-Vineyard, Panorama City, Riverside, San Diego, West Los Angeles and Woodland Hills, as properly as hundreds of clinics, brief treatment clinics in Target outlets, and professional medical office properties from Bakersfield down to San Diego and Los Angeles out to the Inland Empire.

“Other wellness care techniques throughout the nation—some not as fiscally robust as Kaiser Permanente—are generating the ideal options for individuals by attracting the very best caregivers with big wage improves and unique incentives, from signing bonuses to onsite childcare,” the information launch said.

“Meanwhile, KP—sitting on billions of cash—has failed to deal with union proposals that would tackle pressing challenges these as staffing shortages, racial justice, and equivalent health and fitness access,” the statement ongoing.

Arlene Peasnall, senior vice president of human means at Kaiser Permanente, rebutted the union’s claims in a assertion, indicating that the healthcare facility method is “indisputably 1 of the most labor-friendly companies in the United States.”

“The problem we are striving to address in partnership with our unions is the progressively unaffordable value of wellness care. And the point is, wages and gains account for 50 percent of Kaiser Permanente’s operational fees,” Peasnall claimed.

Kaiser has been in discussions with the Alliance of Health Care Unions because April, like common conferences due to the fact September, and Peasnall explained the hospital technique believes “an agreement that fulfills the interests of all is extremely possible.”

“We imagine we can arrive at an arrangement with the Alliance that fulfills our shared passions and avoids an unneeded and destructive strike, primarily as we go on to fight this pandemic,” Peasnall reported.

Peasnall additional that, if the unions strike, Kaiser Permanente amenities will keep on being operational.

“If a strike in fact occurs, our amenities will be staffed by our trained and seasoned professionals and the contingency workers we are bringing in as wanted, and our physicians will keep on to be available to care for sufferers,” Peasnall stated.