A strike by Kaiser mental health workers across SoCal enters its fifth day

About 2,400 mental health workers at Kaiser Permanente facilities are on strike Friday amid contract negotiations and allegations of a “broken system,” with Kaiser officials saying the union is “moving slowly ” in the negotiation process and plans to strike before the labor negotiations. started.

Mental health professionals, represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, will vote from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at the following locations:

• Riverside Medical Center, 10800 Magnolia Ave., Riverside
• San Diego Medical Center, 9455 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
• Los Angeles Medical Center, 4867 W. Sunset Blvd.
• Panorama City Medical Center, 13651 Willard St. Panorama City

There will be lunchtime meetings with the public and elected officials at all four locations.

“This is about equality for mental health care,” Jessica Rentz, a Kaiser physician in Fontana, said in a statement issued by the National Union of Healthcare Workers. “We want to be with our patients, not on the picket line, but we can’t continue to work in a system that treats mental health care like a co-op and denies us the time and resources to to provide the care we know our patients need.”

According to the organization, affected workers include psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, addiction medicine counselors, licensed medical counselors and marriage and family therapists “who provide health care for Kaiser’s 4.8 million members in hospitals, clinics and medical offices. [and] home care arrangements from San Diego to Bakersfield.

The union’s contract with Kaiser expired on September 30.

The staffing dispute comes a year after Kaiser reached a $50 million settlement with federal regulators who said the agency’s mental health system was understaffed. that it is impossible to get medical attention.

Kaiser officials say the organization has invested more than $1 billion since 2020 to expand its mental health capacity in California, including hiring more doctors, adding resources and reducing wait times for patients.

The organization, however, says the shortage continues in Southern California, insisting that Kaiser has one physician for every 3,000 Kaiser members, compared to a one in 2,000 in Northern California. That ratio limited the time available to doctors to respond to patient calls and emails, create treatment plans and prepare for appointments, leading to burnout and causing newly hired doctors to leave their jobs. them, the organization is in conflict.

The organization says a quarter of the 1,508 mental health professionals hired by Kaiser’s Southern California region between January 2021 and September 2024 have left their positions.

Kaiser officials said in a statement that the health system intends to continue negotiations “until this agreement is reached.” But it said the union has been focused on the strike since the start of negotiations, and has been “moving slowly in negotiations, including on the very issues the union has identified as key to reaching a contract.”

“It is clear that their plan has always been to go on strike,” according to Kaiser’s statement. “They have been threatening to strike since before we started negotiations in July and have acted without a sense of urgency, refusing to accept or oppose the strong proposals that Kaiser Permanente has put on the table. Most importantly, the union proposed that a full-time specialist would spend 40% or more of their work week not seeing patients.

According to Kaiser, it presented the organization with an offer that includes an 18% salary increase over four years, and also “enhances the comprehensive benefits that our mental health professionals enjoy and gives doctors time a lot that is not the patience of planning and preparation.”

“Today, some of the workers represented by the National Union of Health Workers (NUHW) are choosing to walk away from their patients at various Kaiser Permanente facilities in Southern California to participate in an open-ended strike called by leaders of unions,” Kaiser said in a statement released Monday.

“All Kaiser Permanente members will continue to have timely access to individual appointments during the strike. Patients have the opportunity to be seen by a specialist in our highly qualified, licensed network if their regular provider chooses to participate in the strike. When necessary, we contact patients and offer options that meet their needs. ”

Kaiser said the strike was “totally unnecessary and unfortunately not surprising. NUHW leaders have been threatening to strike since before we started negotiations in July. The union has been slow to negotiate, despite strong proposals that What Kaiser Permanente put on the table. The union’s proposals on the table were extreme and unreasonable.

“The organization does not want more time to take care of patients. It costs more money for doctors to spend less time seeing patients. The key issue is how long the organization wants to remove doctors from direct patient care. The association suggests that full-time doctors increase the time they do not see patients to half their time – at least 19 hours a week. This is unacceptable and can significantly reduce timely access to mental health services for our patients. ”

Union workers say they want an agreement similar to the one reached with mental health workers at Kaiser Northern California, who went on strike for 10 weeks two years ago.

The organization is asking Kaiser to guarantee full-time specialists seven hours a week for patient care tasks such as answering patient phone calls and emails, creating treatment plans, communicating with social service agencies and preparing for the appointment. Union workers say Kaiser only guarantees four hours a week.

The union is also seeking a raise for non-mental health workers, who the union says earn 40% more. It is also calling for the reinstatement of pensions that the union says were abolished for mental health professionals hired in the past decade, although pensions remain for other workers from doctors to to the housekeepers.