More than 75,000 workers to strike at hundreds of Kaiser Permanente health facilities across U.S.

The National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) announced late last week that 75,000 members of its union will go on a five-day strike at hundreds of Kaiser Permanente facilities across the United States beginning February 11th, in response to the company’s failure to reach a labor agreement with the union.

The strike will affect over 400 hospitals, medical offices and other Kaiser facilities in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia.

Represented workers — including nurses, mental health clinicians, lab technicians, and other professionals — are seeking greater investments in staffing and patient care resources. The union also says that Kaiser has refused to recognize the crucial role many of these workers play in providing care and preventing the spread of Covid-19 in the workplace and the community.

The union has said that if Kaiser fails to reach an agreement, the strike would move forward on February 11th. The workers plan to strike for five days, and return to work on February 16th.