Just 98 days after walking picket lines for five days, Kaiser Permanente nurses and other health professionals in California and Hawaii plan to walk off their jobs for a second time on Jan. 26, this time keeping the pressure on their employer for 10 days.
The United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals announced Thursday that it has served Kaiser with a strike notice on grounds that the collective bargaining process has not produced a new contract that its 31,000 members find acceptable. The union says that its members are still handling “escalating workloads that are contributing to dangerous delays in care,” and that “stagnant” wages do not “keep up with the skyrocketing cost of housing, food and health care.” Kaiser nurses continue to request pensions rather than savings-based retirement plans.
During the strike in October, Kaiser rejected workers’ claims about understaffing, insisting that wages are the main reason why workers walked picket lines. Kaiser said its nurses rejected a proffered 21.5% wage increase spread over four years, which also included increases to benefits.
UNAC/UHCP also represents about 5,700 registered nurses at Sharp HealthCare. The union announced late last week that it reached a tentative contract agreement with Sharp, but neither side has yet shared details of the deal.
While the specific wages that Kaiser nurses earn can vary widely, open positions currently advertised on Kaiser’s jobs website give some idea of the range. For example, an open nighttime nursing position working in the emergency department of Kaiser’s Zion Medical Center in Grantville lists a salary range of $54.73 to 74.72 per hour. Full experience requirements did not appear to be listed.