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Kaiser Permanente Workers Stage LARGEST HEALTH CARE Strike In US History: Report

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JSSX3TEDwGc

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, representing about 85,000 of the health system’s employees nationally, approved a strike for three days in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington, and for one day in Virginia and Washington, D.C. Some 75,000 people were expected to participate in the pickets.

The Oakland, California-based nonprofit company said its 39 hospitals, including emergency rooms, will remain open. Doctors are not participating, and Kaiser said it was bringing in thousands of temporary workers to fill the gaps. Still, appointments and non-urgent procedures could be pushed back.

Early Wednesday, workers at Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center cheered as the strike deadline arrived. The strikers include licensed vocational nurses, home health aides and ultrasound sonographers, as well as technicians in the radiology, X-ray, surgical, pharmacy and emergency departments.

Across Virginia and Washington, D.C., only 180 workers were eligible to strike, according to Local 2 Secretary-Treasurer Sarah Levesque. The picketers had to travel miles across the region to meet up, so rather than commuting long distances for three days, they instead chose to participate in a one-day strike and converged in Springfield, Va., on Wednesday.

At least 453,000 workers have participated in 312 strikes in the U.S. this year, according to Johnnie Kallas, a Ph.D. candidate and the project director of Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker. That figure includes Kaiser workers.

Unions representing Kaiser workers in August asked for a $25 hourly minimum wage, as well as increases of 7% each year in the first two years and 6.25% each year in the two years afterward.