We capped off an energetic week on the picket line with Valentine’s Day fun on several picket lines including at LAMC where folks brought cookies to decorate. On Thursday, we had more than 65 people in Downey braving the rain, and marching in ponchos that were brought by a community member.
Kaiser has still not agreed to the governor’s request for focused mediation, and we are organizing allies, including elected leaders and union leaders, to ramp up the pressure on Kaiser to agree to mediation, which is how the Northern California strike was settled.
Our next bargaining session is Monday. The fact that Kaiser officials have refused to hold another bargaining session until March 6 demonstrates that they’re not serious about reaching an agreement, and that we need to get into meditation to keep Kaiser from stringing this out interminably.
Last Friday’s street protest put Kaiser further on the defensive with strong stories like this from ABC7 that forced Kaiser executive Dawn Gillam to try to explain why Kaiser denies pensions and sufficient patient management time to workers in Southern California while providing it in Northern California.
Gillam’s claim that “we are two different business models… and we have two different geographic markets that are very different” raised a lot of questions from our bargaining team and our allies about what exactly makes Southern California different and why does Kaiser thinks it justifies, poorer benefits with less time for patient care duties for its Southern California behavioral health workers.
Townhall Reminder
We are holding a town hall on Sunday starting at 10 a.m. Please use this Zoom link to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/82290971215
Odds and Ends
- Our next bargaining session is scheduled for 10 a.m. Wednesday, February 17 at the Hilton Glendale. Sign up to attend.
- To sign up for picket lines next week, use this link: https://nuhw.knack.com/db#kpc-strike-sign-up/
- We’re continuing to get support on social media, including from the National Association of Social Workers.
Picket line photos
See picket line photos below and on NUHW’s social media channels: Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, and TikTok.
