In a powerful display of strength and solidarity, more than 100 of us from across Southern California — along with allies from other unions across the country who were invited to the event — stopped Kaiser from hosting a successful party for major healthcare purchasers last night at Petco Park in San Diego.
The Kaiser event was supposed to be the capstone of a four-day conference for the boards of major healthcare purchasers, which include unions and trusts that have union and management representatives. But when the union attendees made the short walk from the convention center to the ballpark, they honored our picket line, and many of them grabbed picket signs and joined it, in addition to hundreds of them refusing to cross our picket line.
Stadium officials were angry, but we didn’t let them move us away from the sidewalk outside the stadium. When the event was over, we saw only about 20 people actually leaving what Kaiser thought would be a big party.
Here is a compilation video from last night:
Unions that joined us on the picket line included the Teamsters, OPEIU, AFT, UFCW, and IBEW. The local Fox station, which had visited our picket line in the morning, came back to also cover our ballpark picket.
Scroll Down to read one attendee’s account of our action.
Long Beach Action
Today in Long Beach, several of us leafleted a forum sponsored by CalMatters, the state’s leading nonprofit newsroom, about whether California’s parity law is working. At the beginning of the panel, the moderator mentioned our strike as an example that the law is not being properly enforced.
The session was attended by about 30 people including reporters, legislative staffers and mental health advocates. We talked to reporters and chatted with participants, encouraging them to make donations to our hardship funds and visit picket lines.
Upcoming Actions
This Thursday, everyone is encouraged to join together on the Fontana picket line to enjoy some homemade spicy guacamole in honor of National Spicy Guacamole Day. The location is 9961 Sierra Avenue in Fontana.
On Wednesday, November 20, we’ll be handing out new strike t-shirts to everyone on the picket line. Don’t miss out on the chance to get your regular NUHW shirt laundered!
On Thursday, November 21, we’ll be holding simultaneous 12 p.m. rallies with local leaders outside Kaiser headquarters in Pasadena and Oakland. While we gather outside Kaiser’s Southern California headquarters at 393 E. Walnut Street in Pasadena, Kaiser mental health workers in Northern California will gather outside Kaiser’s corporate headquarters in Oakland to rally in support of the strike and a fair contract in Southern California.
Hardship Fund info and other resources
Applications for the fund are now due Fridays at 5pm for disbursement for the following Friday. Available funds are based solely on funds received through the crowdfunding campaign. You can find the official rules for disbursement here and the application form here.
Petco Park Report from AFT’s Robin Watkins
Check out this account of last night’s action in San Diego and the lasting impact it will have on how Kaiser is perceived by unions across the country.
Brothers and Sisters at NUHW last night was absolutely amazing.
What it was…Kaiser rented out Petco Park for a customer appreciation event. They are a platinum sponsor at the conference in the convention center. The event at Petco was a minimum of $25,000 to rent. There was an open bar and heavy hors d’oeuvres along with entertainment. It was a very expensive event.
Who was invited … the conference had 5,600 attendees. Roughly 80% were labor leaders from all over the country. We are talking old school labor: Pipefitters, Firefighters out of Pittsburg, New York and Chicago. These folks have generational union blood coursing through their veins. We had spent the evening on Sunday and two full days getting our Continuing Education credits. It is rigorous, and as we are fiduciaries, we can not skip or miss sessions. Our badges are scanned at every session. If we do not receive our certificate of completion, we have to pay our funds for the conference and any travel payments made on our behalf. We very much look forward to joining our fellow brothers and sisters at the end to party with our hosting partners as well as our board members.
What you did … while you were beautifully chanting and marching, we were covering every entrance, handing out fliers and letting everyone who approached know that Kaiser had been in a labor dispute with their mental health workers for the last 3 weeks … with no end in sight. The invitees were frustrated, hungry, thirsty and now pissed at Kaiser admin … our supposed partner in healthcare and labor. Most turned around, many not only said, “fuck this” but yelled down the street to people coming up, “It’s a Kaiser strike — turn around!” Some came in, grabbed a sign and marched with you. Almost all of them called their fellow trustees to report what was going on. These people knew the shame of crossing a picket. Did some people go in? Very few. Those that did go in I am almost certain were the plan administrators, actuaries and the fund attorneys. Any labor members in there would feel shame if they went in.
What impact did you make … hundreds of your labor brothers and sisters from all over country did not attend this event. They went back to their trusts and pointed out Kaiser Management’s deplorable behavior. We talked to members from Northern California, Hawaii, Chicago, New York, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, New Jersey and more … this will affect union funds that have Kaiser all over the country. Kaiser prides itself on being a labor partner … these people expect them to walk that talk. It also sent a clear message to Kaiser that it’s not business as usual here when you attack labor. What do we do when labor is under attack? We stand up and fight back. They sure heard that last night!
Thank you for doing what you did last night and what you continue to do. Fight the fight!
Robin Watkins AFT local 1931 Treasurer and California Schools Labor Chair
Grocert support
The LA federation of unions will be bringing grocery boxes to the picket line on Friday. Join us at LAMC to pick up a food box.
Our fourth week on strike began with energetic picket lines, a powerful action in Los Angeles and fresh interest from local media. Reporters from KNBC and Telemundo visited the Anaheim […]
Kaiser Permanente’s state-mandated contingency plan for providing timely and appropriate mental health care during an ongoing strike is woefully inadequate, without any detail for how it is providing critical mental health services for its 4.8 million Southern California members.
We started the third week of our strike with good energy on the picket lines and strong interest from media and state authorities about Kaiser’s inadequate and incomplete plan to continue providing critical mental health services.
Kaiser Permanente’s state-mandated contingency plan for providing timely and appropriate mental health care during an ongoing strike is woefully inadequate, without any detail for how it is providing critical mental health services for its 4.8 million Southern California members.
We wrapped up an energetic second week on the picket line with a couple of special guests. At Los Angeles Medical Center, the band Ozomatli performed on the picket line! […]
With our picket lines now starting at 8 a.m., we got a little more sleep and had a little extra energy out on the lines. At LAMC, we got an extra boost from a visit by Congressman Jimmy Gomez and members of Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice (CLUE).
It took a strike and months of organizing and agitation but NUHW members at AHMC Seton Medical Center and Seton Coastside won a contract that provides strong raises restores quality healthcare benefits.
The strike began on October 21 and will continue throughout Southern California until Kaiser reaches a fair agreement that benefits workers and patients.
We had one of the biggest turnouts for bargaining today in recent memory. More than 50 of us participated in contract negotiations to show that we’re united and determined to win a fair contract that benefits us and Kaiser patients.
After an unproductive bargaining session Wednesday, Kaiser Permanente’s nearly 2,400 mental health professionals will return to picket lines today, including the first picket line in Bakersfield since the strike began on Monday.
Negotiations resume today as the leading voice for social workers in California backs striking mental health professionals and calls on Kaiser Permanente to address their “critical issues."
We had great turnout and lots of energy on our picket lines for Day 1 of our open-ended strike. More than 500 NUHW members walked the picket line at Los Angeles Medical Center and many more picketed at Fontana, Anaheim, and San Diego.
The open-ended strike is a last resort for caregivers who have fought for years to make Kaiser fix a mental health system so broken that it was fined $50 million in 2023
Nearly 2,400 mental health professionals will form picket lines outside Kaiser facilities throughout Southern California demanding that the nation’s largest non-profit HMO fix a mental health system that’s so broken, the state of California fined it $50 million last year.
The strike announcement comes exactly one year after California’s top health regulator fined Kaiser a record $50 million for numerous mental health deficiencies including understaffing its mental health services.
The strike announcement comes exactly one year after California’s top health regulator fined Kaiser a record $50 million for numerous mental health deficiencies including understaffing its mental health services.
Caregivers in Southern California approved strike authorization after Kaiser rejected proposals to address staffing shortages and provide more time for critical patient care responsibilities
Both lawmakers accepted their awards during NUHW’s Leadership Conference and pledged to further their efforts to help workers and patients achieve parity for behavioral health care.
After four of the leading candidates for California governor appeared on stage together for the first time at NUHW’s leadership conference, Tony Thurmond was the leading vote-getter in a non-binding straw poll.
In a non-binding straw poll that followed a candidate forum sponsored by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, held in San Francisco Sunday, September 29, NUHW members in attendance and […]
Español Caregivers at Dominican Hospital’s outpatient rehabilitation center held a picket on September 18, calling for a fair contract that will help the center retain workers and provide the best […]
Shortly after authorizing a strike, more than 100 workers at the Novato Healthcare Center won a contract that builds on the raises they secured months earlier.
Before your cast your ballot, see which candidates support us! NUHW members voted to endorse local, state, and federal candidates who support working people in fighting for fair contracts and better working conditions.
The certified nursing assistant, who found his “voice” after learning English, is helping his coworkers at Novato Health Center speak up for themselves.
The nearly 30 workers are determined to increase their salaries and eliminate appointment quotas that have resulted in increased turnover and lower staffing levels.
Lateefah Simon, who is running to succeed Barbara Lee in representing Oakland and the East Bay in Congress, visited NUHW’s Emeryville office this month to talk about how she can help workers.
Shortly after joining NUHW, caregivers at Providence Hospice filed a ULP charge that has led to a settlement that guarantees appropriate staffing levels and extra pay for people who take on additional duties.
After previously holding an informational picket, workers at Keck–USC hospitals are preparing to strike if they can’t reach an agreement that will provide fair pay and safe staffing levels.
Despite staffing shortages and worker burnout, the university is demanding wage freezes for some workers and the removal of a guarantee of the free family HMO plan which has currently in place.
The workers, who include licensed vocational nurses, respiratory therapists, housekeepers, nursing assistants, medical technicians, occupational therapists, and physical therapists, voted over the past year to join the National Union of Healthcare Workers and have been negotiating a first contract since February.
The Physical Therapist at Visiting Nurses Association of Santa Cruz is an exercise enthusiast who helped lead her coworkers in the bargaining of their new contract.
NUHW members at the nonprofit mental health provider will get an additional three percent raise and become more involved in helping their employer secure additional funding.
When Kaiser claimed that mental health professionals in Hawai’i only qualified for a portion of their $5,000 performance bonus, they showed that Kaiser was crunching numbers incorrectly and won their full bonus.
With contract bargaining set to begin for NUHW-represented mental health professionals in Southern California, The California Labor Federation passed a resolution calling on Kaiser to bargain a fair contract.
After NUHW members in Oakland and Richmond struck two years ago to make Kaiser Permanente recognize MLK Day as a paid holiday, they have begun organizing to do the same for Juneteenth.
With the university proposing wage freezes and healthcare cuts that would worsen an understaffing crisis, NUHW members picketed hospitals across the Keck-USC system.
In the aftermath of a successful strike in Northern California, their counterparts in Southern California are uniting behind a platform to win similar gains.
The five-year agreement includes significantly bigger raises than management had offered before workers held their first work stoppage in more than five years.
On Mental Health Matters Day at the State Capitol, teams of NUHW members and staff met with dozens of lawmakers and their staffers to secure support for two NUHW-sponsored bills.
Long-tenured members at a Marin County nursing home will get 8 percent raises over the next two years in addition to bridge toll reimbursements and more bereavement leave.
More than 150 professionals at the two facilities voted this month to join their colleagues as NUHW members — giving NUHW more than 2,000 members at Providence facilities throughout Northern California.
The Sacramento-based psychologist is a fierce mental health advocate who leads several initiatives to improve access to mental health care for many of Sacramento’s most vulnerable residents.
The first-term Assemblymember from Santa Cruz lost her husband to suicide. Now she’s joining with NUHW to help Californians access the care they need and make health plans provide it.
In a show of strength, nearly 2,000 NUHW members at Keck Medicine of USC, rallied against the university’s attempt to take away their benefits or their right to advocate for patients.
San Diego became the third county in the last six months to urge Kaiser to restore critical patient care time for mental health therapists in Southern California.
More than 2,000 workers filled the streets of Hollywood, marching and chanting before the start of a rally that included remarks from NUHW member Elnora Oseguera.
The SF Labor Council honored NUHW mental health workers for their 10-week strike that forced Kaiser to start making major improvements to its mental health services.
With some patients being put on a waitlist due to lack of available caregivers, NUHW members at Sutter’s Visiting Nurse Association of Santa Cruz are fighting for better pay with no cuts to their health benefits.
NUHW members from across all facilities are showing up to the negotiations in a united front to win improvements to wages, benefits, and working conditions.
After a long delay due to the university’s legal maneuverings, caregivers at the USC Engemann Student Health Center voted to join more than 2,000 of their colleagues as NUHW members.
The two bills would help patients advocate for their rights and help state authorities hold health plans accountable for providing legally-required health care.
NUHW members at Sutter Health’s Sacramento psychiatric hospital held a three-day strike as they continue to fight for a first contract with fair wages and no healthcare takeaways.
More than 100 medical technicians at MarinHealth Medical Center struck for one day as they fight to protect their health benefits and win strong raises.
Sandra Leal-Lopez and her colleagues in Panorama City have been creative in fighting back against Kaiser’s cut to Patient Management Time and they’re gearing up to demand more from Kaiser in contract negotiations.
In violation of their contract, the hospital changed its health plan forcing workers to pay up to $6,000 a year to keep access to their doctors and accept a plan with few participating doctors or hospitals.
In March, workers fought to restore birthing services at a Providence hospital in Petaluma, while Providence workers throughout the region prepared to bargain a single contract.
In a unanimous vote, the board expressed its opposition to Kaiser's decision to reduce the amount of time therapists have to perform critical patient care duties.
The Anesthesia Tech at USC Norris Cancer Hospital is using his bargaining experience as former president of the State Parks Peace Officers Association to serve on his 200-member Keck-USC Contract Bargaining Committee.
Congresswoman Porter spoke to an audience of nearly 200 supporters at NUHW’s Emeryville headquarters with local electeds and union leaders pledging to help her win the March 5 Primary Election for U.S. Senate.
The bills, authored by Assemblymember Gail Pellerin, would help state regulators hold accountable health plans that violate parity laws and help patients successfully advocate for their right to treatment.
In a major organizing victory, more than 80 rehabilitation therapists, social workers, and dietitians voted overwhelmingly to join their coworkers as NUHW members.
Nora, a housekeeper at Sutter California Pacific Medical Center, walked picket lines with her mother before becoming a union leader herself at the San Francisco hospital.
The four-year agreement at the Santa Cruz facility will boost wages 18 percent, while capping insurance premium increases and boosting pay for weekend work.
NUHW members stood in solidarity this month with students, parents and teachers in Glendale where far-right agitators have held violent protests and are now seeking seats on the city’s school board.
The bill, which now heads to the State Senate, would require health plans to maintain accurate lists of in-network providers, including mental health therapists.
One year after using their collective power to win a great contract, workers at Providence Cedars-Sinai Tarzana Medical Center put their power on display once again to oust problem managers in the housekeeping and engineering departments.
Having successfully fought to keep their community hospital open through two bankruptcies, NUHW members are now confronting a new owner that is slashing patient care services and worker healthcare benefits.
Fed up with severe understaffing and 18 months of fruitless contract negotiations, nearly 150 NUHW members held a one-day strike December 6 at the Sutter Center for Psychiatry in Sacramento.
The Orange County Board of Supervisors became the first elected body to pass a resolution calling on Kaiser to reverse cuts that leave therapists in Southern California with even less time to perform critical patient care duties.
Local media outlets covered the picket that included several local elected leaders supporting NUHW members, who have been in contract negotiations for 18 months. A one-day strike has been authorized for December 6.
In just 18 months NUHW has gone from not representing any hospice workers to representing nearly 400 at five workplaces. The latest to join include workers at Hospice East Bay and Sutter Care at Home Sacramento.
The endorsement was decided by NUHW members who voted to endorse the Orange County congress member following a candidate forum during our Leadership Conference in Los Angeles.
Approximately 20 pharmacy and laboratory workers held a three-day strike demanding wage increases on par with what their NUHW-represented colleagues recently won at the hospital.
NUHW helped spearhead the bill to move California farther along the path to a universal healthcare system through its leadership in Healthy California Now, the state’s largest coalition of single-payer, Medicare for All healthcare advocates.
In a major victory for Kaiser therapists and patients, Kaiser acknowledged systemic failures in its mental healthcare system and committed to addressing them. The agreement settled two state investigations, one of which found that Kaiser had canceled over 111,000 therapy appointments during last year’s 10-week strike.
Approximately 470 workers at a major Providence hospital voted to join NUHW, while smaller groups workers at two facilities voted to join their colleagues as NUHW members.
Instead of providing adequate staffing levels, Kaiser is seeking to force homecare workers to work across established service lines and service areas, threatening patients with longer waits for care.
Medical Social Workers in Kern County recently won open schedules and ended the practice of booked appointments in their department. The old booking practice had interfered with their autonomy and opened the door for micromanagement.
As NUHW members at Providence hospitals in Northern California prepare to bargain their next contract, union steward Billie Jean Barton is encouraging her coworkers — including her own son — to get involved in the negotiations.
After a year of paycheck errors that triggered a fierce response from stewards, NUHW members at Queen of the Valley Medical Center secured $250 in penalty pay for any future errors.
In filing complaint with Kaiser’s accreditation agency, NUHW cites HMO’s failure to meet the mental health staffing levels it had agreed to in its Corrective Action Plan.
In part due the mental health timely access law NUHW sponsored, Model of Care Committees in Northern California have made strong recommendations to increase access and reduce caseloads.
NUHW’s newest members at West Anaheim Medical Center will receive average wage increases of 26 percent with some workers securing 61 percent raises over the next three years.
Elected officials, including Rep. Katie Porter (shown above), are joining NUHW members in opposing an attempt by Kaiser to reduce the amount of time mental health therapists in Southern California would have for critical patient care duties.
The three-year agreement will boost wages by an average of 22 percent and provide safer working conditions amid a sharp rise in anti-LGBTQ+ hate crimes.
During his 17 years at Fountain Valley Regional Hospital, Isidro Sanchez has helped build a union that helped workers win respect and significantly higher pay from their employer.
Shortly before a grievance was set to go to arbitration, Queen of the Valley Medical Center agreed to create a higher-paying Phlebotomist classification and pay several workers who should have been receiving higher wages for over a year.
After sailing through the State Senate, SB 770, a bill that would set the stage for groundbreaking reform of California’s healthcare financing and delivery system, advanced out of the State Assembly’s Health Committee.
The new contracts for more than 1,300 NUHW members include provisions to protect quality pediatric care in the East Bay as well as substantial pay increases and job security protections.
Whether it’s singing, reciting poetry, or defending her colleagues, the mental health counselor at Richmond Area Multi-Services never hesitates to make herself heard.
The annual mental health advocacy event in Sacramento presented an opportunity for NUHW members to meet peers and inform the public about our ongoing parity work.
Chanting “Keep OB Open,” dozens of workers protested the closure of Petaluma Valley Hospital’s birthing center and vowed to continue fighting to reopen it.
More than 1,300 NUHW members are preparing for a potential three-day strike after UCSF refused to make movement in contract negotiations following a one-day strike in April.
In a unanimous ruling, an appeals court revived a class-action lawsuit by families of Kaiser Permanente patients who claim they or their loved ones did not receive adequate mental health care. The ruling is now legal precedent in California.
NUHW was named Organization of the Year by the Stonewall Democratic Club, the largest LGBTQ+, feminist, and progressive political advocacy organization in Southern California.
SB 770 would set California on a path to becoming the first U.S. state to create a healthcare system in which no resident is denied care based on age, employment, disability, income, immigration status, or any other characteristic.
Workers at the USC Downtown Clinic overwhelmingly voted to join NUHW, while our union's more than 1,700 members at Keck-USC helped their colleagues beat back the university's attempt to deny raises to new NUHW members at the Roski Eye Institute.
Since a 2014 affiliation agreement put UCSF Health in control of the non-profit 223-bed Oakland hospital and satellite clinics, NUHW members and their colleagues have repeatedly raised concerns about UCSF under-resourcing care in the East Bay.
After failing to accomplish their goals in their previous contract campaign, workers at Providence Cedars Sinai Tarzana Medical Center built unprecedented unity to win bigger raises and other gains this year.
Several years before prosecutors filed a lawsuit against Providence for sending debt collectors after patients who qualified for free care, NUHW members were blowing the whistle on its charity care violations in California.
At its annual Architects of Justice Awards banquet this month, Clergy and Laity United for Economic Justice honored the approximately 850 nurses and professional workers at the Tenet hospital who joined NUHW last year and won a contract with strong raises and patient protections.
The three-year agreement preserves pensions and includes guaranteed raises without which Kaiser stood to lose even more therapists, resulting in even longer appointment wait times for patients.
With Providence (St. Joseph Health) seeking to close the birthing center at Petaluma Valley Hospital in violation of its purchase agreement, caregivers are joining forces with community leaders to save the facility.
Sutter halted merit raises after workers voted to join NUHW, but workers stayed united, fought back and settled a complaint requiring that Sutter restore the raises with interest.
The Sacramento Bee recently ran a commentary about a tool designed by Healthy California Now and NUHW letting Californians calculate how much money they’d save if the state adopted a single-payer Medicare for All healthcare system. Find out how much you'd save.
After fighting to win penalty pay for payroll mistakes last summer, NUHW members at Providence hospitals acted fast to prevent the healthcare giant from illegally doubling payroll deductions after another payroll error.
In a sit-down interview, Sabrina Chaumette, a Kaiser therapist in Oakland, reflects on last year's strike by NUHW-represented clinicians in Oakland and Richmond that forced Kaiser to finally honor Martin Luther King Jr. Day as a paid holiday.
Joined by parents and community leaders, hundreds of workers called on UCSF to agree to contractual provisions that would safeguard jobs and medical services in the East Bay.
After walking picket lines with her colleagues during what was the longest strike ever by mental healthcare workers, the Kaiser therapist made more history last year by becoming the first Black mayor of Santa Rosa.
