Kaiser mental health workers will strike Monday throughout Northern California over what they say is inadequate staffing, resulting in patients experiencing long waits to get to appointments.

The workers also say the health care provider is retaliating against clinicians for advocating for patients.

The 1,400 Northern California psychologists, therapists and social workers are members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers. Approximately 40 of the mental health workers are based at Kaiser facilities in Marin. Picketing is scheduled to occur at Kaiser’s San Rafael Medical Center on Wednesday and Thursday.

“Kaiser needs to hire enough clinicians to provide timely, appropriate care to the ever-growing number of Kaiser members seeking help,” union president Sal Rosselli said in a statement. “And this company must stop its retaliation against the caregivers who are courageously standing up for their patients.”

Mark Goldstein, a psychologist who has worked for Kaiser in San Rafael for the past 20 years, said, “Our understaffing has gotten just worse and worse, and the quality of our services has progressively deteriorated over time. We have inadequate therapists to treat the patients.”

Sides at impasse

Kaiser said the remaining major issues at the bargaining table are wages and accountability expectations. The two sides are at impasse.

“The union has asked for a 19 percent increase over a three-year period in addition to more than $15,000 in bonuses. We believe this is excessive,” said Gay Westfall, Kaiser Permanente senior vice president for human resources, in a statement Wednesday.

But union spokesman Justin DeFreitas said, “The contract covers six years, not three. The clinicians are asking only for what Kaiser has given to all of its other employees and no more than that.”

DeFreitas said Kaiser has withheld from mental health workers the cost of living wage increases that they gave to other unionized workers over the past three years. He said Kaiser is also demanding pension benefit concessions from mental health workers that it has not asked its other unionized employees to make.

Kaiser facilities will be open during the strike. It plans to offer mental health services during the strike, using physicians, managers and contracted providers.

“The union knows this strike will be very hard for Kaiser Permanente patients, given the shortage of mental health therapists in the community. That is why it is so indefensible for the NUHW to be calling on its therapists to walk away from their patients,” Westfall said.

42 picket lines

The union will have 42 rolling picket lines at 24 Kaiser facilities during the first week of the open-ended strike. In the Bay Area, San Jose Medical Center and San Francisco Medical Center will be targeted Monday. Pickets will continue Tuesday in Walnut Creek, Oakland, Santa Clara and San Francisco.

The state fined Kaiser $4 million in 2013 for failing to provide mental health treatment in a timely manner. The state Department of Managed Health Care also said Kaiser violated state law that requires equal access for both mental and physical health treatment.

The penalty was the second largest ever levied by the Department of Managed Health Care. Its investigation also found that Kaiser’s written description of its mental health services was complicated and misleading and “could dissuade an enrollee from pursuing medically necessary care.”

A follow-up report in February found that things had improved, with shorter wait times for first appointments. But the health care provider still was lagging in scheduling follow-up visits.

Also, some patients continued to be given inaccurate information about mental health benefits and coverage.

Kaiser also is facing class action lawsuits over families of mental health patients who contend their loved ones did not receive adequate, timely treatment.

The health provider has reported hiring the equivalent of 497 therapists since January 2011 and plans to hire more than 350 more by the end of the year.

The union contends Kaiser’s hires have barely kept pace with membership growth and do not address long-standing staffing shortages.

Kaiser’s mental health clinicians have been without a contract for more than four years. This is their second strike this year; they walked out for a week in January.