Mental health care workers at Kaiser Permanente are heading back to the picket lines Tuesday at multiple Southern California medical centers, including one in San Diego, in a continuing dispute with management.
National Union of Healthcare Workers officials said workers would be picketing at San Diego Medical Center, 9455 Clairemont Mesa Blvd. and other SoCal locations. Picket lines will be in place every day from 8 a.m. to 2 p.m.
The company said it was prepared to ensure the continuation of patient service during the strike.
"Kaiser Permanente remains steadfast in our commitment to deliver high-quality mental health care and addiction medicine services to every single patient who comes to us for healing," according to a Kaiser statement provided to City News Service on Monday.
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"The plan we put together to manage through the current NUHW strike is working well and helping to ensure we deliver on our promise of safe and timely high-quality mental health care. Intense and careful attention to detail has gone into every aspect of our preparation for this work stoppage."
No bargaining sessions are scheduled for this week.
According to the union, the key issues remain "Kaiser's unwillingness to provide its nearly 2,400 mental health professionals in Southern California the same amount of time for critical patient care duties that can't be done during appointments as their counterparts in Northern California -- as well as the same wage levels and retirement benefits as comparable workers throughout the Kaiser system."
The company had a different take.
" ... Throughout this difficult time, our goal remains the same: to reach an agreement with NUHW," Kaiser said. "That said, we will not agree to reduce our therapists' non-clinical care time to nearly 50% of their workweek. This would dramatically reduce the availability of critically needed patient appointments by more than 15,000 every month. Further, we are committed to paying our employees wages that are up to 10% above market. Our therapists are currently paid on average 18% above market in Southern California. We will not agree to a new contract that places their pay more than 40% above what their peers make across Southern California."
"... We have put a strong offer on the table and are eager to do the hard work needed -- at the table -- to reach an agreement that benefits both our valued mental health workers and the patients we all serve."
According to the union, the impacted workers include psychologists, social workers, psychiatric nurses, addiction medicine counselors, licensed clinical counselors and marriage and family therapists who "provide behavioral health care for Kaiser's 4.8 million members in hospitals, clinics and medical offices [and] homecare settings from San Diego to Bakersfield."
The union's contract with Kaiser expired Sept. 30.
The labor dispute comes one year after Kaiser reached a $50 million settlement with state regulators who said the healthcare giant's mental healthcare system lacked adequate staffing caused lapses in access to care for patients.
Kaiser officials said the organization has invested more than $1 billion since 2020 to expand its mental health capabilities in California, including hiring more therapists, the addition of resources and reductions in wait times for patients.
