Today marks the last day of a five-day hunger strike, and Day 173 of the strike, which makes it the longest mental health strike in U.S. history.
LOS ANGELES — Eight mental health workers will end their five-day hunger strike at 6 p.m. this evening outside the Kaiser Los Angeles Medical Center with clergy and supporters at their side. The hunger strike, which began early Monday, has drawn visits from Kaiser Permanente workers and patients as well as labor leaders including Dolores Huerta.
The hunger strikers will be available to speak with reporters from 8 a.m. until shortly after 6 p.m. today outside the Los Angeles Medical Center, 4867 W. Sunset Boulevard. Congresswoman Sydney Kamlager-Dove will visit the hunger strikers at 2:30 p.m today.
In addition to being the final day of the hunger strike, Friday marks the 173rd day since the 2,400 Kaiser mental health therapists, psychiatric nurses, social workers and psychologists went on strike in Southern California. That surpasses a 172-day strike by Kaiser mental health therapists in Hawaii as the longest mental health strike in U.S. history.
Bargaining to resume next week
For the first time since mediation broke down exactly one month ago, Kaiser has invited workers back to the bargaining table. Negotiating sessions are scheduled for Tuesday, April 15; Wednesday, April 16; and Tuesday, April 22. The two mediators, former California Health Secretary Mark Ghaly and former Sacramento Mayor Darrell Steinberg, will participate in the bargaining sessions.
“We remain ready to negotiate a fair contract that ends the inequities, which leave Kaiser’s behavioral healthcare system underfunded and understaffed,” NUHW President Emeritus Sal Rosselli said. “The facts remain that we are not seeking anything in terms of patient care time, salary increases and retirement benefits that Kaiser doesn’t already provide to nearly all of its employees. If Kaiser is serious about putting behavioral healthcare on equal footing with its other services, there is nothing in our proposals that it should find objectionable.”
Below are the three major issues that remain unresolved.
- Patient Care Time: In Northern California, Kaiser guarantees full-time therapists 7 hours per week for patient care duties that can’t be done during therapy sessions, such as responding to patient calls and emails, preparing for appointments, communicating with social service agencies, making charting notes and devising treatment plans. The lack of time for these tasks in Southern California is a major reason why therapists leave Kaiser, contributing to the HMO’s chronic understaffing issues. Still, Kaiser is proposing to only guarantee five hours per week, while therapists in Southern California last month reduced their request from seven to six hours per week.
- Pension Restoration: Workers are seeking the same defined benefit pensions Kaiser provides to nearly all its employees, but eliminated for its Southern California mental health workers hired after 2014. Over the course of a 40-year career, Kaiser mental health workers without a pension will receive nearly $2 million less in retirement dollars than Kaiser employees who still have pensions. Kaiser data shows that mental health workers without pensions are twice as likely to leave Kaiser as those with pensions.
- Fair Salaries: Workers are seeking to close the gap between themselves and therapists who provide medical care at Kaiser, who make up to 40 percent higher salaries. However, Kaiser is proposing lower raises for its mental health workers than it provided recently to its medical workers in the Coalition of Kaiser Unions.
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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.
