Kaiser Permanente workers in California have voted to authorize an unfair labor practices strike in October, a walkout that would be the biggest in the U.S. in more than 20 years.

The employees, represented by Service Employees International Union – United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), are seeking higher wages that can support middle-class families, assurance of adequate staffing, compassionate use of technology and a worker/management partnership that will bargain in good faith.

More than 37,000 employees — or 98% of California workers, who range from nurses and X-ray technicians to phone operators and janitors — approved the action in voting done July 31 through Aug. 11. They are the first of more than 80,000 employees to cast their votes.

Others in Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia will be voting through mid-September.

If a strike occurs at Kaiser hospitals and medical clinics it would begin in early October and would be the nation’s largest since the Teamsters’ walkout at United Parcel Service in 1997. That 16-day action involved more than 185,000 workers and cost UPS hundreds of millions of dollars.

The SEIU-UHW action arose after contract talks stalled July 12. Most of the employees’ labor contracts will expire in October. In December, the National Labor Relations Board charged Kaiser with failing to bargain in good faith and wrongly tying collective bargaining negotiations to a ban on political activity, including picketing the company.

‘Misleading’ ballot questions

In a statement emailed Monday, Kaiser said the union’s ballot questions are misleading, making it appear that a strike is the logical option for employees.

“To be clear, Kaiser Permanente has presented a contract proposal that would provide annual pay increases that would keep our employees compensated higher than market averages and maintain excellent benefits,” the healthcare giant said. “Contrary to the union’s claims, there are no pay cuts and no changes to our employees’ defined pension benefit, under our proposal.”

The California vote to authorize a strike comes a week after Kaiser announced its offer, which also seeks to reduce staffing shortages.

The offer includes annual increases of 3% each year through 2022 for employees in Northern and Southern California. It preserves their existing defined pension plan along with other retirement benefits and proposes a program that would address the national shortage of health care workers and help develop the next generation of unionized workers in health care.

Other provisions include:

Career mobility: A more robust tuition reimbursement program for employees that adds an additional $250 to travel funds

A more robust tuition reimbursement program for employees that adds an additional $250 to travel funds Affordable health care: Encourages employees to take greater responsibility for their health by rewarding them for increasing their use of mail-order prescriptions.

Not what it seems

Kaiser employees say the proposal isn’t what it seems.

“They are trying to say they are negotiating … but they are not,” said Patty Van Dyke, who works as an emergency department technician at a Kaiser hospital in Sacramento. “They are talking about a 3% raise while they are raising our co-pays.”

James Bell, who works in the radiology department at a Kaiser facility in Downey and is a member of the SEIU-UHW bargaining team, said the offer comes with strings attached.

“The raises are tied to allowing future employees, beginning in 2021, to be hired at 15% less than what current employees make,” the 55-year-old Torrance resident said.

New workers would likewise have less in the way of retirement benefits, fewer days off for vacations and sick time and other takeaways from the current contract, he said.

Chronic understaffing

Both employees say understaffing is a grim reality.

“We’re supposed be going nonstop,” Van Dyke said. “We have to clean up after the nurses, clean the rooms, do CPR and EKGs, run transports to the rooms … I go home and I’m exhausted. I wake up the next morning and I can barely walk sometimes.”

Bell said staffing in his unit often means one employee is doing the work of two or three.

“If you have to move a 300-pound patient by yourself you are going to get hurt,” he said. “We don’t have enough people, and we’re getting complaints that things are taking too long.”

Kaiser said it hopes to avoid a walkout.

“It is important to understand that a strike vote does not mean that a strike is imminent, although it does place Kaiser Permanente in the position of having to spend millions of dollars preparing for the threat of a strike event,” the healthcare giant said. “Our first priority is always continuity of care for our patients and members.”

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