Kaiser Permanente workers reach tentative deal after largest healthcare strike in US

The tentative agreement comes one week after a group of nurses, emergency department workers, radiology technicians, ultrasound sonographers, and others took to the picket lines across the country

Kaiser Permanente union workers said they reached a tentative agreement with the healthcare system, just one week after the nation’s largest healthcare strike in history.

“The frontline healthcare workers of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions are excited to have reached a tentative agreement with Kaiser Permanente. We are thankful for the instrumental support of Acting US Labor Secretary Julie Su,” the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions wrote on X on Friday morning.

The reason behind the strikes has been the staffing shortage, which the coalition argued has created “unsafe” working conditions and has neglected patient care. The coalition was asking for a solution to the staffing crisis, higher wages across the board, and benefits.

The tentative agreement comes one week after a group of nurses, emergency department workers, radiology technicians, ultrasound sonographers, and others took to the picket lines across the country.

Kaiser previously argued: “Despite the acute shortage of healthcare workers nationally, we have been able to hire more than 50,000 frontline employees in the last two years: 29,000 people in 2022, and another 22,000 so far this year.”

The walkout took place in California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Virginia and Washington DC and spanned three days, from 4 October through 7 October.

However, even if this deal is met, a new potential strike looms. The coalition previously indicated that workers would wait to strike again, if at all, until 1 November, a day after a contract with additional 3,000 Seattle workers is set to expire.

“What the parties have achieved here in Oakland demonstrates, once again, that collective bargaining works. When workers have a voice and a seat at the table, it can result in historic gains for workers, their employer, and our country," said Acting Secretary of Labor Julie Su. “The President and I congratulate the parties on reaching a mutually beneficial deal that delivers important stability for this critical workforce, for Kaiser Permanente, and for the patients in their collective care.”

“This deal is life-changing for frontline healthcare workers like me, and life-saving for our patients,” said Yvonne Esquivel, a pediatric medical assistant at Kaiser Permanente in Gilroy, California. “Thousands of Kaiser healthcare workers fought hard for this new agreement, and now we will finally have the resources we need to do the job we love and keep our patients safe.”

The coalition unveiled some of the details of the tentative agreement in a statement.

The coalition said that Kaiser Permanente will work with union workers to addressing the staffing crisis by raising wages by 21 per cent over four years. The deal would also establish increased wages — $25 in California and $23 in other states where Kaiser Permanente operates.

The statement said that “frontline healthcare workers in the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions are expected to begin voting to ratify the agreement starting October 18.”