‘It’s Time We Have Their Back’: Progressive Lawmakers Voice Solidarity With Striking Kaiser Workers – “If Kaiser can afford to pay its CEO over $15.4 million it can afford to treat all of its workers with respect,” said Sen. Bernie Sanders.
by Picture-unrelated
7 comments
The working class is unstoppable when we come together <3
Medical insurance companies, Kaiser among them, can deny coverage for tests, treatments, etc. that your Dr. orders for you.
Let that sink in.
The insurance coverage that you are legally required to pay for can pick & choose when they’re going to do their part.
I’m glad to see someone like Bernie speak up in support of paying workers fair wages & etc., but the ~~medical~~ insurance industry as a whole has bought and paid for all of our lawmakers, and our laws show it. I’m not going to hold my breath that they’re going to start doing the right thing.
No it can’t. Supreme Court ruled that corporations’ first priority are its shareholders. “Shareholders” is spelled differently than “employees”.
Bernie is completely right.
Many comments are not substantively focused on the issues at play here. The article is also a little light on details. I will list a few concerns shared with me by a family member who works for Kaiser:
They haven’t hired any new staff in four years or more; whenever anyone leaves or retires due to burnout the work gets shovelled onto those who stayed. This leads to even more burnout.
Due to the increased workload and burnout, waiting times, appointments, etc., are delayed, which causes patients, who are likely already under some stress, to treat staff with less respect and often open derision and hostility. They also raised the cost for patients quite a lot, compounding the issue.
During covid, there was an amount of work forced on staff which led to extreme psychological distress (not quite every waking hour at work, but close, and for more than a year).
The company took in billions in profit and refused to give pay rises or bonuses to workers, only giving executives multi-million dollar bonuses and purchasing other healthcare systems on the east coast.
They also even try to cut pay for workers in some hospitals, even during this time high inflation and rising cost of living.
They try to restrict new hospitals from joining the union.
They try to subvert unions by putting disparate groups of employees together (like janitors and radiologists in the same union; they don’t have the same concerns and interests, but they can raise janitors’ pay by a tiny amount and claim to have addressed the unions concerns).
They use tactics of psychological warfare to suppress the workforce and particularly those striking, mandating that receptionists call all patients to personally notify them of the strike and apologize (obviously the situation is not their fault and this will involve some traumatic interactions); they mandate that existing staff train the scabs, which training is not a part of the job description for these staff members, and there was not even enough time to train them, esp on top of extreme existing workload.
It used to be a very good place for patients and staff until the previous executive died suddenly in 2019 and the one who took over is basically an abusive vampire, hell-bent on corrupting the whole system (which was already profitable and highly functional) for the sake of wanton, pointless greed and suppression of workers and patients.
The amount that we pay for healthcare operations either emergent or elective compared to what the workers receive is out right horse shit.
Either lower prices or give them more money. I don’t care if it comes out of my pocket or the insurance’s pay your goddamn workers you greedy mother fuckers.
Oh now people listen to Bernie. It’s fine being right can be late, but it’s good people are paying attention