Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Unions Allowed To Call Strike For Over 20,000 Kaiser Permanente Staff
Modern Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente Workers Give Union OK To Strike
Members of two labor unions representing more than 24,400 Kaiser Permanente employees in southern California and Oregon have voted to allow their bargaining teams to call a strike, if needed. The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals' and the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals' votes comes after the unions' contracts with the integrated health system expired at the end of September. At both unions, 96% were in favor of authorizing strikes. The labor groups announced the voting results Monday. (Christ, 10/11)
Fierce Healthcare: Kaiser Permanente Union Members 'Overwhelmingly' Vote To Authorize Strike Over Contract Negotiations
Members of a union representing nearly 21,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and other healthcare workers have 'overwhelmingly' voted to move forward with a strike nearly two weeks after the expiration of their union contract. The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) said Monday that 96% of its 18,209 participating members voted in favor of authorizing the strike across numerous hospitals, clinics and other Kaiser Permanente facilities in Southern California. (Muoio, 10/11)
In news from Massachusetts, Connecticut and elsewhere —
NBC News: 'This Is Not Where We Expected To Be': Massachusetts Nurses Strike Hits 7-Month Mark
The nursing strike at Saint Vincent Hospital in Worcester, Massachusetts, marked its seventh month Friday, as negotiations between the union and hospital officials continued to deteriorate with no end in sight. More than 700 nurses walked off the job March 8, citing chronic staffing issues made worse by the pandemic. Despite months of negotiations, the workers, represented by the Massachusetts Nurses Association, said the hospital owned by Dallas-based Tenet Healthcare would not meet their demands. The nurses now hold the record for the longest nurses strike in state history. (Kesslen, 10/10)
The CT Mirror: Workers To Launch Strike Against Major Group Home Operator
About 185 members of the state’s largest health care workers’ union were scheduled to hit the picket lines early Tuesday morning as negotiations stalled with a major chain serving the disabled. Employees at 28 group homes and day programs run by Sunrise Northeast, who’ve been working under a contract that expired in March, ordered the work stoppage after the union and management failed to make sufficient progress in negotiations on a new deal, said Rob Baril, president of SEIU District 1199 New England. (Phaneuf, 10/11)
Axios: Health Care Workers Strike As Pandemic Compounds Burnout
The toll of the coronavirus pandemic has spurred nurses, front-line technicians and other hospital employees to walk out or authorize strikes. The pandemic has buckled a system that already faced worker shortages and burnout. Patients ultimately can't receive adequate care if workers leave from the stress and violence. Unions representing more than 24,000 nurses and other hospital workers yesterday authorized strikes at Kaiser Permanente facilities in California and Oregon. (Herman, 10/12)
Time: U.S. Workers Are Realizing It's the Perfect Time to Go on Strike
Thousands of workers have gone on strike across the country, showing their growing power in a tightening economy. The leverage U.S. employees have over the people signing their paychecks was amplified in Friday’s jobs report, which showed that employers added workers at a much slower-than-expected pace in September. The unemployment rate fell 0.4 percentage points during the month, to 4.8 percent, the government said Friday, and wages are continuing to tick up across industries as employers become more desperate to hire and retain workers. In the first five days of October alone, there were 10 strikes in the U.S., including workers at Kellogg plants in Nebraska, Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee; school bus drivers in Annapolis, Md.; and janitors at the Denver airport. That doesn’t include the nearly 60,000 union members in film and television production who nearly unanimously voted to grant their union’s president the authority to call a strike. (Semuels, 10/8)
