Kaiser health care workers strike for better wages

Thousands of Kaiser employees in California, Oregon and Hawaii organized a five-day work stoppage after negotiations for higher pay and other demands stagnated.

by Carly Nairn, Court House News, October 14, 2025

OAKLAND, Calif. (CN) — More than 30,000 Kaiser Permanente nurses and health care workers across three Pacific states started a five-day strike on Tuesday, calling for better wages and more time for patient care as negotiations between union heads and Kaiser executives remain unresolved.

Members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP), along with members of the Alliance of Health Care Unions, picketed outside 22 Kaiser hospitals in California, Oregon and Hawaii. Up to 46,000 health care professionals are eligible to strike.

Union leaders claim recent layoffs, stagnant wages, unsafe working conditions, excessive workloads and Kaiser’s prioritization of profit over care — the company holds almost $64 billion in reserves acquired mostly during the Covid-19 pandemic — pushed them to organize one of the largest health care labor actions in U.S. history.

“We do not take the decision to strike lightly,” the UNAC/UHCP said in a statement on Sunday. “A strike is always a last resort, reached only after every other option has been exhausted. Over the past several months, our bargaining teams have met with Kaiser Permanente at both the local and national tables in good faith. When Kaiser requested mediation in recent weeks, we agreed in the hope of achieving a breakthrough. We’ve made ourselves available to meet anytime, anywhere throughout the 10-day notice period — and beyond.”

At the picket line outside of Kaiser Oakland Medical Center on Tuesday, approximately 100 protesters chanted and marched around, waving signs and cheering as passing cars honked in appreciation. Strike organizers said they had 400 workers signed up to picket during different parts of the day.

Neel Arant, a midwife at Kaiser for eight years who was part of the picket line, said Kaiser had cut her and other midwives’ pay and benefits, and “destroyed our ability to have any say in our own department.”

“They are disrespecting women’s health care by going to war with Kaiser’s midwives,” she said. Arant, who has been a midwife for 23 years, noted that many pregnant women go to Kaiser hospitals for their midwifery services, and the only other profession that can deliver babies and provide the level of expertise and care of midwives are OBGYNs.

“It makes no financial sense for Kaiser to do this,” she said.

Kaiser said in a statement Monday the strike was “unnecessary and disruptive.”

“The Alliance began bargaining seeking a 38% wage increase over four years and now demands 25% — a figure out of step with today’s economic realities and rising health care costs,” the Kaiser statement said. “This would dramatically increase the current $6.3 billion annual payroll and lead to higher rates for members and customers, with serious market implications.”

UNAC/UHCP reps believe higher wages are reasonable given high inflation and agreements Kaiser made with other unions, asserting their members are currently 7% underpaid compared to their colleagues.

“For almost 15 years, I tried to change things from the inside. I believed that with persistence, collaboration and a loud enough voice, we could fix the system,” Walter Fulgram, a physician associate in the cardiology department at Kaiser Santa Clara, said in the union statement. “And in some ways, we did. But what I kept running into were massive discrepancies: between departments, between sites and even between people doing the same job.”

Kaiser expects its hospitals to run normally during the work stoppage, claiming it will bring in 1,000 employees from other areas to fill in the gaps.

“Our pharmacies are open and operating on their normal schedules during the strike,” said Lionel Sims, Kaiser’s vice president of national labor relations. “Our medical centers and medical offices are open.”

Jeff Cathcart, a nurse anesthetist (CRNA) with Kaiser for 20 years, was also at the protest in Oakland. He said that of Kaiser’s 400 CRNAs in Northern California, 115 have left to work with competitors, which resulted in “decreasing care for patients.” Cathcart said his department had a recruitment problem because Kaiser won’t offer the some of the same benefits as other regional hospitals.

“I’m not sure what Kaiser’s motivation is,” he said. “They have been dragging their feet quite a bit and I’m not sure why.”

Cathcart said union reps and Kaiser are scheduled to continue negotiations at the bargaining table next week, and he will “see where things go from there.”

The walkout began at 7 a.m. on Tuesday and will last until 7 a.m. on Sunday.

In Northern California, nearly 2,800 nurses and health care professionals are expected to stop work during the five-day action.