In the latest sign of mounting labor unrest in the health care industry, thousands of Kaiser Permanente frontline health workers in Oregon and southwest Washington walked off the job early Tuesday, part of a coordinated strike spanning several states.
The walkout — which is slated to end by 7 a.m. Sunday — involves about 4,000 employees who work at Kaiser’s Sunnyside Medical Center in Clackamas, Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro and dozens of clinics and surgical centers stretching along the Interstate 5 corridor from Longview, Washington, to Eugene.
The striking workers are represented by the Oregon Federation of Nurses & Health Professionals, which include nurses, pharmacists, nurse practitioners, physician assistants, midwives, genetic counselors, physical and occupational therapists, speech language pathologists, dietitians and other specialty health care professionals.
The union is part of the Alliance of Health Care Unions, which also has more than 43,000 Kaiser employees in California and Hawaii striking this week. Both the Oregon union and the Alliance have been in contract negotiations with Kaiser Permanente — one at the local level and one nationally.
Union leaders say the strike follows six months of stalled contract talks. The union’s previous labor agreement expired Sept. 30. They cite stagnant wages, unsafe staffing levels and limited voice in patient care decisions as key issues driving the walkout.
Kaiser leaders said they have prepared contingency plans to maintain operations during the walkout. They said the health system’s hospitals, pharmacies, medical and dental offices will stay open, but some appointments and elective procedures may need to be rescheduled or moved to virtual visits.
Sarina Roher, president of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals, said that Kaiser used to have strong and collaborative partnership with its unions — a relationship that helped build what she called “gold standard contracts” and avoided major strikes since the labor unrest of the 1990s. But she said that in recent years, especially after the COVID-19 pandemic, that partnership has weakened, and negotiations have become much more tense.
“Kaiser’s foundation and their mission is all about how they do business, and that is supposed to be in partnership with their workers,” Roher said. “We have our doors open to repair and restore the partnership, because many of us came to work here because of the partnership and to have a real voice in the work that we do and how we care for our community.”
Dr. April Milan, a physical therapist who has spent 12 years at Kaiser’s Sunnyside Medical Center, said the company’s once-strong labor-management partnership has eroded in recent years, leaving many frontline clinicians feeling sidelined in decisions about patient care. Milan said she’s part of a bargaining unit that includes a broad range of professional clinicians — from therapists and dietitians to audiologists — who are seeking a stronger say in how care is delivered.
“We know our professions. We know what the gold standards are for quality care, and we know how much time it takes to do that,” she said.
Milan said she and her colleagues want those insights reflected in their contract through safe staffing, fair wages and a formal role in decisions affecting patient care. She said workers want their contract to outline reasonable appointment lengths and workloads to ensure they can provide appropriate, high-quality care.
“If we can’t have it codified in a contract that we have input in the decisions that impact patient care, it’s very concerning to us,” she said. “Who will be deciding how care is delivered — and how will they know better than those of us with advanced practice licensure?”
Kaiser Permanente leaders have criticized the five-day strike, calling it an “unnecessary” action “designed to disrupt the lives of our patients — the very people we are all here to serve.”
They said Alliance-represented workers already make about 16% more than similar workers at other health systems and that its latest proposal would lift wages 21.5% over the course of a proposed four-year contract, with enhanced medical and retiree benefits.
Company officials argued that the unions’ 25% wage demand would sharply increase its $6.3 billion annual payroll and force Kaiser to raise prices for its patients and health insurance plan members.
Kaiser officials on Monday said the company was planning to onboard around 7,600 temporary health care professionals to fill in shifts during the strikes in Oregon, California and Hawaii.
The strike comes amid a series of labor disputes in the health care sector, as hospitals and clinics nationwide grapple with staffing shortages, burnout and cost pressures.
Two years ago, a Kaiser union representing service and clerical workers held a brief strike that led the health system to postpone some surgeries. Shortly after that strike, Kaiser imaging technologists and pharmacy workers, part of a separate union, also went on a weekslong strike. Earlier this year, nearly 5,000 Providence health workers at all eight Providence hospitals across the state held a 46-day strike that concluded in February. Nurses at Legacy Mount Hood Medical Center narrowly avoided a strike this summer after negotiating a new contract.
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