Nurses and other health professionals at Kaiser’s Oregon, Southwest Washington facilities plan to strike Oct. 14

PORTLAND, Ore.-The Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals announced today that its members at Kaiser Permanente facilities throughout Oregon and Southwest Washington will strike starting Oct. 14 unless they are able to reach a tentative contract agreement with Kaiser.

The strike would start Oct. 14 and go no longer than five days, said OFNHP President Sarina Roher.

OFNHP represents nearly 4,000 healthcare workers in four different bargaining units who can strike-two units of registered nurses, laboratory professionals and professional employees (such as social workers, cancer counselors, audiologists, physical therapists and mental health therapists). OFNHP members work at Sunnyside Medical Center east of Portland and Westside Medical Center west of Portland, along with ambulatory surgical centers and medical clinics along the I-5 corridor from Longview, Wash., to Eugene, Ore. Their contracts expired on Sept. 30. Bargaining has been ongoing for months with very little progress, Roher said.

"We're fighting to make sure Kaiser puts patients first-health care should be driven by our mission, not a desire for more profits. Longer wait times for appointments and shorter times with caregivers undermines the quality of care. At Kaiser, our members provide the best care, if patients can get it in a timely manner," Roher said. "We want to get back to what Kaiser once stood for-a value system that puts patients first and a partnership with its caregivers."

Roher said Kaiser needs to focus on recruiting and retaining healthcare workers so that healthcare workers no longer are told to take on more patients with less time with each, noting Kaiser is losing talented employees to other hospitals and facilities across town because of superior pay.

OFNHP is an affiliate of the AFT. "Kaiser was built as a healthcare system that believed great healthcare required real partnership between management and labor-a real voice at work for the frontline caregivers. Kaiser has abandoned that value. OFNHP members are looking to provide great healthcare in Oregon, but by every measure, Kaiser doesn't want to even bargain the basics," said AFT President Randi Weingarten.

"They refuse to offer competitive salaries even though Kaiser employees and other staff are needed for patients to get the healthcare they deserve. Frontline employees-whether they're at the bedside, in the lab or counseling patients-must have the necessary tools and conditions to provide Kaiser patients with what they expect," Weingarten said.

OFNHP is part of the Alliance of Health Care Unions, which represents 62,000 Kaiser Permanente health professionals in 23 local unions among eight national unions. The Alliance is simultaneously working on a national bargaining agreement that would be an addendum to each local's contract. The contracts of 52,000 Kaiser Permanente workers also expired on Sept. 30 or Oct. 1 and nearly all have given 10-day strike notices. In addition to facilities in Oregon and Washington state, strikes would start at Kaiser facilities in other regions across the Kaiser system.

"We hope that this strike notice will push Kaiser to come to the bargaining table and negotiate a fair agreement that is good for healthcare workers, patients and the communities we serve," Roher said.

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The AFT represents 1.8 million pre-K through 12th-grade teachers; paraprofessionals and other school-related personnel; higher education faculty and professional staff; federal, state and local government employees; nurses and healthcare workers; and early childhood educators.