On Wednesday, October 4, over 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers went on the largest healthcare strike in U.S. history. The strike, which consists mostly of nurses, medical technicians and support staff, is just the latest in a series of strikes sweeping the nation. According to a CNBC report, over 430,000 workers went on strike in 2023. Kaiser workers embarked on a 72-hour long strike in order to secure higher wages, and for Kaiser to address staff shortages. If the United States wants to secure a bright future, supporting unions is paramount.
The past couple of years have seen a wave of high-profile strikes, like the Amazon unionization effort in Staten Island, New York, the SAG-AFTRA writers strike and the ongoing UAW strike. Much of this can be attributed to the pandemic, but an often overlooked part is President Biden’s National Relations Review Board. The NLRB, which is ostensibly supposed to “protect workplace democracy,” has been severely weakened over the past 50 years. However, in recent years, the NLRB has taken a much more aggressive approach towards union-busting, and has facilitated many of the recent unionization efforts, including the Kaiser protest.
With COVID-19 came huge influxes of patients, and healthcare staff stretched thin. As a result, over five million healthcare workers quit their jobs during the “Great Resignation.” A 2021 study conducted by the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, which tracked strikes happening throughout the country, found that around a third were in the healthcare industry. Then in 2022, the U.S. Surgeon General released a report warning of a burnout crisis, stating that, “Confronting the long-standing drivers of burnout among our health workers must be a top national priority.” The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions says that their goals are designed to remedy this exact issue. Not only do higher wages and better staffing benefit healthcare workers, but they also help patients as well. Adequate staffing directly increases patient outcomes, increases patient satisfaction and reduces patient care costs — an increasingly important factor for many Americans as healthcare costs continue to rise.
On Friday, Kaiser Permanente announced that they had reached a tentative agreement with the strikers, but the details are unknown at the time of this article. If the union votes to reject the deal, then workers could resume their strike as soon as November 1. So far, it seems as though the Kaiser strike has been an overwhelming success, reflecting the power that its union members hold together. The concessions will help the healthcare workers do their jobs effectively, and patients can hopefully look forward to seeing material change.
