SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – Thousands of Kaiser Permanente mental health workers in Los Angeles and San Diego plan to go on strike starting Monday morning, including more than 300 workers in San Diego.
The strike will take place Monday through Friday at the Claremont Mesa store, except for Tuesday, when San Diego workers will join the Los Angeles strike.
Jim Clifford, a therapist at Kaiser Psychiatric Office in Otay Mesa, has worked for Kaiser for 23 years and will be among the strikers. Clifford, a member of the National Union of Health Care Workers (NUHW), said the strike is aimed at securing similar contracts for Southern California workers as those in Northern California.
The union’s contract expires on September 30, and negotiations continue. Clifford said he hopes Kaiser will propose a package to attract and retain mental health workers, with a particular focus on restoring union pension plans.
“We’re basically the only group of employees at Kaiser who don’t have a pension,” Clifford said. “That makes it difficult to attract and retain people because they realize we are overbooking and feel they can work elsewhere and get a pension.”
Clifford said we need more psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, addiction treatment counselors and marriage and family therapists, but Kaiser said the mental health workforce has increased by 30% in the past four years. reported an increase.
The union is negotiating more patient care hours, calling for seven hours a week for tasks such as calling, emailing and making appointments for patients. Kaiser countered in six hours that the union’s request would take up 40 percent of the workweek that could be spent treating patients.
The union is also seeking pay increases, arguing that Kaiser’s non-mental health workers earn 40% more. Kaiser is offering a four-year contract and an 18% raise.
Another important issue is the reinstatement of pensions, which were abolished ten years ago. The union said pension shortfalls have led to increased turnover and weakened Kaiser’s mental health training program.
“Kaiser basically punished us by taking away our pensions because we’ve been advocating for mental health and for our patients,” Clifford said.
In response, Kaiser said it offers competitive retirement benefits, including a fully subsidized retiree health plan and a defined contribution retirement plan in which the employer may pay 9%.
A Kaiser spokesperson also said, “From the beginning of the negotiations, the union has moved slowly through the negotiation process, including on the very issues that the union identified as key to closing the contract. If a strike were to occur, , it must be NUHW’s fault.” Leaders chose this path rather than the path to consensus. ”
