Kaiser Permanente workers have tentative deal after historic strike

Unions representing more than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers on Friday announced a tentative contract agreement, likely averting a threatened repeat of the largest walkout by health care workers in U.S. history.  

“The frontline health care 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 U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su,” the coalition tweeted.

Oakland-based Kaiser did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Kaiser employees including nurses, lab technicians, pharmacists and others staged a three-day walkout last week in California, Colorado, Oregon, Virginia, Washington and the nation’s capital, with the coalition threatening another strike in November if negotiations failed to yield an agreement.  

The dispute involved worker complaints of chronic understaffing, a problem that the managed care giant pinned on an industrywide shortage of workers.

Kaiser “needs to retain and attract qualified health care professionals. Outsourcing and subcontracting would have the opposite effect,” Kathleen Coleman, medical assistant message management, Arapahoe Primary Care in Colorado, said in a statement distributed by the coalition earlier this week before the tentative deal had been reached. 

A wage proposal by Kaiser last week offered an hourly floor of $21 to $23, depending on location, beginning next year and to be increased by one dollar in 2025 and 2026. Unions in the summer had called for a $25 an hour minimum across Kaiser facilities.