Glendale, Calif – For the first time since Oct. 25, striking Kaiser Permanente mental health therapists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and psychologists will return to the bargaining table today. However, the workers, who are in the 13th week of what is now the longest mental health strike in California history, are not optimistic about a breakthrough based on recent statements from Kaiser intentionally misrepresenting several contract proposals.
Nearly 2,400 Kaiser mental health professionals in Southern California went on strike Oct. 21 seeking:
- The same guaranteed seven hours per week as their counterparts in Northern California have to perform critical patient care duties that can’t be done during appointments;
- The same pensions that nearly all Kaiser employees receive, but which Kaiser eliminated for mental health professionals; and
- Salaries that make up for several years when Kaiser denied them the cost-of-living raises that nearly all other employees received.
Kaiser’s elimination of pensions for mental health professionals hired after 2014 and assembly line approach to mental health care – making therapists see patients back-to-back-to-back with not enough time to complete other work assignments – has resulted in chronic understaffing that contributed to Kaiser being fined $50 million in 2023 for violating state mental health parity laws.
However, Kaiser is still refusing to provide equal treatment for its Southern California mental health professionals and appropriate mental health care for its patients. The HMO has made no movement toward ending the strike, disrupting care for Kaiser members over the past 13 weeks, including:
- Forcing patients onto 30-day appointment waitlists;
- Cancelling psychotherapy groups for thousands of patients including mothers with postpartum depression and people with substance use disorders;
- Failing to adequately staff its hospice services and NICUs; and
- Sending patients with severe conditions to an outside provider unequipped to care for them.
While patients suffer, Kaiser has continued to put out statements misrepresenting its proposals and those of its workers. In a recent statement, Kaiser falsely claimed that:
- It’s already providing pensions to all of its Southern California mental health workers, by stating that it provides them “defined contribution pension plans,” which are really just 401(K) plans.
- Workers in Southern California are asking to be paid 40 percent more than their local peers when in reality they are asking for less than Kaiser already pays their counterparts providing mental health care in Northern California.
- Full-time workers are proposing to see patients only 50 percent of their work days, when in reality they are only seeking seven hours per week (17.5 percent of their time) for work that can’t be done when seeing patients, such as responding to patient calls and emails, preparing for appointments and devising treatment plans. This is the same amount of time Kaiser already provides therapists in Northern California, but Kaiser is only willing to guarantee four hours in Southern California, forcing workers to stay late and work through their lunchtimes to make sure patients get the services they need.
“One of the first things we’re going to ask Kaiser to do during the bargaining session is go over their math with us because it doesn’t add up,” said Dr. Jared Garcia, a hospice clinical social worker for Kaiser. “We’re ready to negotiate in good faith to end the strike. We want to be with our patients, but our patients and their families shouldn’t have to accept less access to mental health care and emotional support than every other service Kaiser provides.”
Read a fact sheet about the strike.
# # #
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.
