Still no negotiations scheduled as strike enters eighth week. Workers to walk picket lines 8 a.m. to 2 p.m. this week throughout Southern California.
Glendale, Calif – The California chapter of the National Association of Social Workers has written a letter to Kaiser Permanente CEO Greg Adams calling on Kaiser to “resume good faith negotiations with NUHW’s Southern California members as soon as possible, and accept the union’s reasonable contract proposals.”
Kaiser’s 2,400 striking mental health therapists, psychiatric nurses, social workers and psychologists have been on strike since Oct. 21. Kaiser has singled out its Southern California mental health workforce for harsh treatment over the past decade by:
- Taking away pensions that nearly all of their Kaiser employees receive.
- Paying them as much as 40 percent less than therapists who provide medical care.
- Providing them only half as much time as their Northern California counterparts to perform critical patient care duties that can’t be done during appointments.
Now entering the eighth week of the strike, Kaiser is still refusing to move off proposals that would further entrench second-class status for its mental health professionals and the care they provide.
In her letter to Adams, NASW California Executive Director Kimberly Warmsely chastised Adams for years of ignoring reports from workers of “severe understaffing” and “unmanageable caseloads” that are “having adverse impacts” on the ability of Kaiser patients to access mental health care. Kaiser currently staffs approximately one mental health therapist for every 3,000 Kaiser patients in Southern California.
“Despite repeated calls from NASW CA and other organizations of behavioral health professionals to address these substandard conditions — and following multiple investigations by the Department of Managed Health Care that culminated in a $200 million settlement, including a $50 million fine — these issues remain unresolved,” Wormsely wrote.
Mental health professional organizations have been highly critical of Kaiser in recent years. In 2020, Jared Skillings, chief of professional practice for the American Psychological Association, wrote that his organization had “never seen such an egregious case of delayed access for follow-up appointments” in a letter to state regulators.
“Professional organizations like the National Association of Social Workers have been leaders in demanding improvement from Kaiser,” NUHW President Emeritus Sal Rosselli said. “We appreciate that they understand Kaiser can’t truly improve its behavioral health services unless it agrees to treat its behavioral health professionals on par with all its other workers.”
Picket lines will begin at 8 a.m. and run through 2 p.m. from Monday through Friday.
On Monday, workers will picketing be at the following locations:
- Los Angeles Medical Center, 4867 W. Sunset Blvd.
- San Diego Medical Center, 9455 Clairemont Mesa Blvd.
- Fontana Medical Center, 9961 Sierra Ave., Fontana
- Anaheim Medical Center, 3440 East La Palma Ave., Anaheim
There will be a lunchtime rally with community and elected leaders at all strike locations. Click here for a full list of picket line locations and click here for a fact sheet about the strike.
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The National Union of Healthcare Workers is a member-led movement that represents 19,000 healthcare workers in California and Hawai’i, including more than 4,700 Kaiser mental health professionals.
