Photo: Los Angeles Times
Over 75,000 Kaiser Permanente employees walked off the job on Wednesday (October 4) in the largest healthcare workers strike in U.S. history. The workers were picketing outside hospitals and medical offices in California, Colorado, Oregon, Virginia, Washington, and Washington, D.C.
The strike is scheduled to last three days.
The striking workers include vocational nurses, X-ray technicians, therapists, medical assistants, pharmacists, and emergency room workers.
The employees are demanding higher pay, better benefits, and a long-term plan to deal with staffing shortages that have been plaguing the healthcare industry.
"We continue to have front-line healthcare workers who are burnt out and stretched to the max and leaving the industry," Caroline Lucas, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, told CNBC. "We have folks getting injured on the job because they're trying to do too much and see too many people and work too quickly. It's not a sustainable situation."
Kaiser Permanente said that hospital and emergency rooms will remain open. While doctors and most registered nurses will stay on the job, the healthcare provider is warning patients that some non-emergency services and appointments may be delayed or canceled.
Kaiser Permanente is one of the largest not-for-profit healthcare providers in the country, operating 39 hospitals and 600 medical offices in eight states and the nation's capital. The company does not charge for individual service. Instead, members pay dues to have access to all the services it provides.
The union said that another strike action is planned in November if a deal is not reached.