Workers in Southern California demonstrated their resolve to win a fair contract by joining with allies for a massive street protest outside Kaiser’s Los Angeles Medical Center.
Following a rally headlined by union and elected leaders, striking workers and allies, including California Labor Federation President Lorena Gonzalez, blocked West Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles outside the Kaiser Los Angeles Medical Center until police arrested them.
More than 100 additional striking mental health therapists, social workers, psychiatric nurses and psychologists gathered in support of the protesters, chanting, “Settle it now.”
Kaiser therapist Marisela Calvillo, a striking therapist, told the LAist that she and her family had to leave their Pasadena home after the Eaton Fire ignited, and criticized Kaiser’s unwillingness to reach a fair agreement when so many people in her community are suffering from extreme grief and loss.
“I know, like, my neighbors, they lost their homes — or their family lost homes — so they really need that ability to talk to someone to support them emotionally,” Calvillo told the news outlet.
Several news organizations in addition to the LAist, several outlets covered the action including KABC, Fox 11 LA, KTLA, KCAL, KNX News Radio, and La Opinión. A recording of the livestream of the entire action is available on NUHW’s Instagram Page.
The February 7 protest was the first act of civil disobedience during any Kaiser strike. Workers who have been active on the picket lines decided to do this with community support because after four months of Kaiser slow-walking negotiations, while clearly violating clinical standards and legal requirements for care during the strike, they felt it was time to take an action that conveyed the seriousness of the situation and Kaiser’s failure to act in a moral and ethical manner.
“Mental health is as important as physical health,” striking Kaiser therapist Kassaundra Gutierrez-Thompson told the LAist. “The fact that there’s no urgency to get us back really reinforces Kaiser’s reluctance to actually believe that.”
Speakers during a rally prior to the street protest included UNAC President Charmaine Morales, UNITE-HERE Local 11 Co-President Ada Briceño, and NUHW member Marcy Pullard, who works at Kaiser’s Behavioral Health Crisis Line.
NUHW President Emeritus Sal Rosselli announced that workers had accepted a request from Governor Newsom asking both sides to enter into focused mediation.
Three days of focused mediation in 2022 helped reach a fair settlement that ended the 10-week Kaiser mental health strike in Northern California. A state investigation later found that Kaiser had illegally canceled more than 111,000 individual and group therapy sessions during the strike.
Since the current strike in Southern California began last October, NUHW has filed more than a dozen complaints with state and federal regulators documenting instances of:
- Patients who want to retain their therapists being placed on 30-day appointment waitlists even though Kaiser is required to provide medically necessary follow-up appointments within 10 business days by law.
- Kaiser canceling psychotherapy groups for thousands of patients including mothers with postpartum depression and people with substance use disorders.
- Kaiser violating industry standards by sending patients with severe conditions to an outside virtual provider that is only capable of treating patients with mild-to-moderate conditions.
