Kaiser nurses go on strike in the pouring rain. Here's why — and how it will affect patients

Thousands of nurses, physicians assistants and other healthcare workers at over a dozen Kaiser Permanente locations across Southern California went on strike Tuesday morning over pay and staffing concerns.

The walk-out began at 7 a.m. and is expected to continue through Sunday morning. In Downey, dozens of workers walked off the job at a Kaiser medical center in the pouring rain.

" If we're out here, there's something wrong in there," said ICU nurse Julie Castle.

Castle joins tens of thousands of other workers in a five-day labor action at Kaiser locations across California, Oregon and Hawaii. They're represented by the Alliance of Health Care Unions — a coalition of labor unions for Kaiser workers.

The national agreement between the Alliance and Kaiser expired at the end of September, but the unions say they want to see higher pay and more voice in staffing decisions. They've been bargaining over a new contract since May.

Kaiser is proposing a 21.5% pay increase for the workers over the next four years. The unions are asking for 25%. A Kaiser spokesperson called that request "a figure out of step with today’s economic realities and rising health care costs" and said its workers make more than others in the industry.

Stella Terrell, a registered nurse at Kaiser's medical center in Downey, disagreed.

" A lot of of healthcare professionals have left Kaiser, 'cause we're no longer the best pay," she said. "The patients benefit from it when we have the highest qualified, the most experienced folks."

Terrell is a member of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals, which represents some 31,000 nurses and other workers at Kaiser, almost all of them in Southern California.

Nurses and other workers walked off the job at Kaiser's medical center in Downey in the pouring rain.

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Libby Rainey

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LAist

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The president of that union, Charmaine Morales, told LAist that in their last contract negotiation, workers accepted a pay raise of 10% over four years, while bargaining in the heart of the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, she said the nurses, physicians assistants and other workers she represents want their pay to catch up to other workers who have since bargained contracts with Kaiser.

Mental health workers for Kaiser staged a six month strike that ended in May, when they signed a new contract including a 20% raise over four years. In 2023, a different coalition of unions for Kaiser workers won a 21% raise over four years after striking.

"During COVID, we worked with Kaiser," said Nancy Fiandach, another striking nurse in Downey. "Staffing was terrible and we understood that and we worked with them. We did not complain and we thought that they would come to the table and give us fair wages. But they did not."

Morales, the union president, also said her unit members wanted more input into how Kaiser scheduled patient and staff time. She gave an example: some nurse practitioners having their patients booked in 20-minute slots.

" Say you are someone newly diagnosed with cancer. You want to have adequate time to have that visit, not 20 minutes, and that's it," she said. "So it's [about] being able to have a say in how patients are scheduled."

Castle, the ICU nurse, told LAist that sometimes nurses can't take breaks, and that limited staffing keeps patients waiting when they need help with things like going to the bathroom.

A Kaiser spokesperson disputed union claims around patient care in an email, saying "They say their goal is to protect patients by ensuring better care and staffing, but the real issue is wages."

Kaiser also said in a statement that its hospitals and medical offices will remain open if the strike occurs, and that some non-urgent appointments could be rescheduled or shifted to be virtual. A spokesperson for the health system also said it was onboarding "up to 7,600 nurses, clinicians and other staff to work during the strike."

Strike locations and schedules are listed here.