Peninsula Kaiser Workers Aim To Rally Over Priorities

REDWOOD CITY, CA — Health care workers will rally from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Tuesday at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center to urge the medical giant to get ‘back on track’ by championing affordable healthcare for all, quality patient care and strong jobs, according to its staffers' union.

The rally planned on the San Francisco Peninsula represents one of 33 rallies staged by SEIU, as in United Healthcare Workers West, at Kaiser facilities across California over the next month, including 16 in the San Francisco Bay Area. Rally participants are expected to be out in their demonstration during lunch hours and breaks.

Workers with the 95,000-member union contend that while Kaiser Permanente is a ‘nonprofit’ hospital system, "too often it acts like a ‘for-profit’ corporation that leaves behind the values, community relationships and connection to patients and healthcare workers that made it a success." The union said it is determined to get Kaiser "back on track" as the provider that communities enthusiastically call their own, patients believe offers the best care, and employees are proud to work for.

Kaiser has reported profits of $3.2 billion in the first quarter of 2019 and sits on $31.5 billion in reserves, the union reported. Thirty-six of its executives are paid more than a $1 million annually, led by the chief executive officer making $16 million.

More than 55,000 Kaiser Permanente employees in California are members of SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West, and their contract with Kaiser Permanente expires Sept. 30.

The union believes its workers are underpaid, understaffed and undervalued in terms of being replaced in some instances by automated systems that can "compromise patient care," union spokesman Sean Wherley told Patch.

He cited an example in which a patient was dying in one of Kaiser's Bay Area facilities that relied on a robot to gather the patient's data.

Wherley also said the union takes issue with how many people are delivering patient care and wants the facility to work with current staff to "commit to the workforce of the future" in an industry expected to witness massive growth.

"It's making an obscene amount of money that should be invested in patient care and in the people who care for the patients," he told Patch.

Kaiser Permanente company spokesman John Nelson indicated the health care provider started working with a union coalition in mid April and believes it is on the right track to achieve results that represent a win-win for all involved.

"We believe that by working together in partnership with the unions that represent our employees, we will continue to achieve the best results for our members, patients and the communities who depend on Kaiser Permanente to provide high-quality, affordable health care — and help to keep Kaiser Permanente a great place to work for all," Nelson said. "We reiterate our pledge to bargain in good faith and our commitment to reach fair and equitable agreements that provide our employees with excellent, market-competitive benefits and wages."

The company made the case that its revenue gains "go into providing high-quality, affordable health care and to improving the health of our members and the communities we serve, not to earn a profit or pay shareholders." As for the surplus in its reserves, Kaiser Permanente argues the money covers its obligations "if something unexpected were to occur or if regular business was interrupted."

This demonstration isn't the end of Kaiser's employee woes.

Thousands of mental health clinicians could soon walk off the job at Kaiser Permanente facilities statewide after 80 percent of them voted this week to authorize an open-ended strike, according to officials with the National Union of Healthcare Workers.

The 4,000 members of the NUHW could walk out as early as June if they are unable to reach a contract agreement with Kaiser, union leaders said Thursday. The clinicians, including psychologists, therapists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and addiction medicine specialists, are demanding that Kaiser increase staffing levels to address what union leaders call a crisis of access to mental health services.