OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Tens of thousands of health care workers have ratified a new four-year contract with industry giant Kaiser Permanente following a strike over wages and staffing levels, the parties announced Thursday.
Of the 85,000 members in the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, 98.5% voted in recent weeks to ratify the contract, the coalition said in a press release. It runs retroactively from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2027.
The deal includes setting minimum hourly wages at $25 in California, where most of Kaiser’s facilities are located, and $23 in other states. Workers will also see a 21% wage increase over four years.
The agreement also includes protective terms around subcontracting and outsourcing, as well as initiatives to invest in the current workforce and address the staffing crisis. The workers’ last contract was negotiated in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The three-day strike last month involved 75,000 workers in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Some 180 workers from facilities in Virginia and Washington, D.C., also picketed for one day. 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.
Oakland, California-based Kaiser has hospitals and clinics that serve nearly 13 million Americans, and union members said understaffing is boosting the hospital system’s profits but hurting patients.
Both sides said they prioritized patient health care during their talks. Steve Shields, Kaiser’s senior vice president of labor relations, said previously that the deal will not affect consumer rates.
2024-12-25 09:232860 view
2024-12-25 09:17296 view
2024-12-25 09:071259 view
2024-12-25 08:281580 view
2024-12-25 07:511623 view
2024-12-25 07:392751 view
A manager of a home-based pet grooming salon appeared in a district court on Dec 11 over the death o
ATLANTA (AP) — By now, Georgia officials expected their new Medicaid plan, the only one in the natio
A suspected gunman who opened fire during a Trump rally Saturday in Butler, Pennsylvania, was fatall