US braces for major strike by health care workers

[Anta Assamey]

Riddled with inflation and an un-abating auto workers strike, the US economy is facing the grim prospects of a health care workers strike that could paralyze the working of hospitals across the country.

Claimed to be the largest health care workers strike, over 75,000 healthcare workers struck working on Wednesday and will continue until Friday morning.

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, representing healthcare workers and support staff for one of the largest not-for-profit medical systems, announced last week that it would strike if contract negotiations failed with management, media reports said.

Critical patient care staff through the Kaiser Permanente system, including EMTs, nurses, and radiological and lab technicians, will be taking a three-day walk-out against unfair labour practices in California, Oregon, Washington, and Colorado. Pharmacists and optometrists are the only healthcare workers striking in Washington D.C. and Virginia, media reports said.

Kaiser is a vertically integrated and member-driven healthcare system that coordinates daily and specialist care within the same network, the Washington Examiner said adding , understaffing at Kaiser have been exacerbated by the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and the wave of early retirements and burnout among healthcare workers.

The coalition is demanding wage hikes for all union members as well as improved retiree benefits to compensate for what they call as an unprecedented work load.

The unions are also requesting additional protections from outsourcing.

Meanwhile, agencies reported that tens of thousands of nurses and other healthcare workers launched a planned three-day strike at Kaiser Permanente facilities across the U.S. on Wednesday, after new contract negotiations failed to meet the union deadline for reaching a settlement.

The strike against Kaiser, one of the nation's leading not-for-profit healthcare networks and managed-care organisations, is claimed to be the largest in US medical history.

However, Kaiser Permanente said its hospitals and emergency departments would remain open through the strike and staffed by doctors, managers and "contingency workers."

Negotiations have been tough and contentious contracts in a tight U.S. labor market and inflation have led to strikes over pay and benefits for workers in numerous fields this year, including the automobile, rail, airline and entertainment industries, reports said.

The Kaiser union specified a deadline of Wednesday to reach a deal on a new pact covering nurses, medical technicians and support staff in hundreds of hospitals across California, Oregon, Washington state, Colorado, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

Seated at the bargaining table for negotiating a new contract for the health care workers are the Kaiser Permanente management, coalition union representatives working all night to hammer out a solution.

The workers coalition is made up of eight unions that represent the interests of nurses, technicians and support staff. The coalition of workers stated that the company has failed to negotiate in good faith.

The earlier labor pact expired on September 30 necessitating a new one in the context of the demand for new wages to adjust against inflation and the cost of living index.

Over 68,000 nurses and 213,000 technicians, clerical workers, and administrative staff, alongside its 24,000 doctors work under the banner of Kaiser. The unions are demanding better wages and filling up more jobs. A major sticking point in the negotiations is how to staff workers at different levels. The union has asked Kaiser to hire 10,000 new healthcare workers to fill current vacancies.

In Virginia and Washington, D.C. only optometrists and pharmacists are striking work, but the larger impact of the strike would be felt on patients in California, Colorado, Oregon, and part of south-western Washington State, a Kaiser spokeswoman was quoted as saying.

Over 300,000 workers have indulged in work stoppages throughout August this year, according to U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data, which marks 2023 as the busiest year for strikes since 2019.