Kaiser Permanente workers start to walk off the job. It’s set to become the largest health care worker strike in US history
On Wednesday morning, unionized employees of Kaiser Permanente, one of the nation’s largest not-for-profit health providers, have begun to walk off the job.
By 9 am ET, more than 75,000 Kaiser workers plan to join picket lines, marking the largest health care strike in US history.
The striking employees are represented by a coalition of eight unions that comprise 40% of Kaiser Permanente’s total staff. The unions ordered members off the job at 6 am local time, and Kaiser workers in Virginia and Washington, DC, started to walk out early Wednesday.
The vast majority of the striking workers are in the western part of the United States, including California, Colorado, Washington and Oregon.
The unprecedented strike comes at a time of heightened labor activity across the United States, with tens of thousands of workers across multiple industries taking to the picket lines for better pay and benefits. In the wake of pandemic, however, health care workers in particular have been fighting for safer and more secure work environments.
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