Kaiser Permanente reaches tentative agreement with workers after strike

Kaiser Permanente and a coalition of unions representing more than 75,000 health workers announced Friday they had reached a tentative agreement for a new contract.

The agreement would put an end to an ongoing labor dispute over low wages and staffing shortages that culminated in a three-day strike across multiple states last week, the largest health care worker strike in U.S. history. 

“The frontline healthcare workers of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions are excited to have reached a tentative agreement with Kaiser Permanente as of this morning,” the unions said in a statement. “We are thankful for the instrumental support of acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su.”

Kaiser Permanente issued a similar statement echoing support for Su, who was in San Francisco attempting to negotiate a last-minute deal between the sides before the strike. Su arrived back in California Thursday evening to help the sides bridge the gap on “key lingering issues,” the union groups said.

President Biden in a statement said he was “grateful” the two sides could reach an agreement.

“Health care workers and support staff kept our hospitals – and our nation– going during the dark months of the pandemic. They had our backs during one of our nation’s toughest times. We must continue to have theirs,” Biden said.

Biden also praised Su for helping to broker a deal.

“This isn’t the first time Acting Secretary Su has helped essential workers and their employers reach an agreement. She continues to play an integral role helping my administration and workers across this country build an economy that works for everyone,” Biden said.

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions said it has been fighting since April over staffing levels, wages and outsourcing. The union said Kaiser needs to make larger investments in staffing that could help stem employee turnover and reduce growing patient wait times.

The union was asking for a $25 hourly minimum wage, as well as increases of 7 percent each year in the first two years and 6.25% each year in the two years afterward.

The new deal would raise wages by 21 percent over four years, and would establish a minimum wage of $25 an hour in California and $23 an hour in other states where Kaiser Permanente operates, the unions said.

“Millions of Americans are safer today because tens of thousands of dedicated healthcare workers fought for and won the critical resources they need and that patients need,” Caroline Lucas, executive director of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions said in a statement Friday. “This historic agreement will set a higher standard for the healthcare industry nationwide.”

The contracts for hundreds of positions including nurses, radiology and X-ray technicians, clinical laboratory scientists, optometrists and even housekeepers, expired Sept. 30.

The union coalition notified Kaiser earlier this week of another potential strike next month if a deal wasn’t reached by Oct. 31, when the contract for employees in Seattle expired. 

Strike lines were set up at Kaiser Permanente hospitals and medical office buildings across the country last week, including California, Colorado, Washington, Oregon, Virginia and Washington, D.C.

In a statement, the union said it was protesting unfair labor practices and Kaiser executives’ “failure to bargain in good faith over unsafe staffing levels and outsourcing protections at hundreds of Kaiser hospitals and facilities across the United States.”

The health system said it presented an “enhanced offer” to the unions Oct. 1 that included across-the-board wage increases as well as higher minimum wages.

The company said it had already reached a deal with the union coalition to hire 10,000 new employees by the end of October.

Updated at 2:10 p.m.