Kaiser Permanente: How the Largest Health Care Strike in US History is Affecting Latinos

The largest healthcare worker strike in history has been triggered by low wages, outsourcing and lack of patient care, according to union workers who are part of it.

Over 75,000 union Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers decided to strike from Oct. 4 through Oct. 6, which one union representative said came after months of requests to improve the workplace that were not answered.

"Our contract expired Sept. 30, and we had already for over a year asked Kaiser to the table with a fair contract with things that need to be addressed and they kept putting us off" said Caroline Dardon-Spangler, SEIU Local 49 Union Steward.

Dardon-Spangler is of Hispanic descent and has worked as a patient access representative at the Kaiser Permanente Sunnyside Medical Center in Clackamas, Oregon, for 18 years. She said the union is asking for wage increases and for Kaiser to pledge not to replace employees with temp agency workers, something that has been happening. She said many Hispanic people at her location work the low-wage jobs at Kaiser, which are at risk of being replaced by temp agency workers, but on top of that, she said some of those positions are also high risk for COVID-19 exposure and exposure to many other illnesses.

According to data from the New American Economy Research Fund, Hispanics make up 13% of the healthcare workers. Additionally, Hispanics are the group least likely to have health insurance. This data suggests that of that 13%, many might be doing the lowest paid jobs in healthcare, meaning that they will likely be relying on their employer to access health care according to previous reporting from The Latin Times.

"Unfortunately, they're at the bottom of the tier of the group, and we're like, 'Hey Kaiser, so, you just had this person clean this room which has Covid or some other thing you can think of, and you're only paying them $19 an hour? When my child can go work at the YMCA as a sports counselor making 18.25 an hour playing hopscotch?' There's a discrepancy there for sure," Dardon-Spangler said. She emphasized that employeesworked as cleaners, kitchen staff, floor techs and gardeners even during the height of the pandemic, making low wages in a time of high uncertainty and health concerns.

Dardon-Spangler said she believes low wages and risks have caused staff shortages because people see similar or even higher wages in jobs that don't come with the associated risks and stress. She said people aren't saying they want to work for Kaiser anymore.

"The staffing crisis is why we're out there on the strike line, saying enough is enough. You need to hire more people, you need a competitive wage to attract new people," Dardon-Spangler said. She said the most important thing for her is patient safety. Working in the emergency department, Dardon-Spangler said, she's seen the wait times go from a two-hour wait to four, six or even eight-hour waits to see a doctor.

Contract negotiations

The contract that Kaiser makes with each union lasts four years until it must be renewed, and this time around, Dardon-Spangler said Kaiser proposed 3% wage increases over four years, totaling 12%, while they were asking for 7% over four years, totaling 28%. Dardon-Spangler said they were asking Kaiser to meet them somewhere between three to seven percent, but they still haven't been able to come to an agreement.

Additionally, Dardon-Spangler said they wanted Kaiser not to outsource employees, but they said they will continue to do so.

Service quality and lack of appreciation

Dardon-Spangler said she's seen Kaiser's service quality go down. She said she was born at a Kaiser hospital in southern California and has been a member her whole life, with her parents even working there. She said now she feels like "They don't care."

"It's sad because we're doing this three-day strike, and we're not getting paid, and the CEOs are still living like nothing. They have a home to come home to, the money to go out and eat, but they're not thinking about us," Guadalupe Azua, SEIU Local 105 Union member, said. "We got a message before we went on strike, and they said, 'Please think about your patients, the members, you and your family,' Yes, but they're not thinking about us, and that's what gets frustrating."

Azua is Mexican-American from El Paso, Texas, and works as a patient transporter at Kaiser Permanente Franklin Medical in Denver, Colorado.

"We're not getting paid for three days, but we prefer to get these three days over with than to get four years more of this same thing," Azua said.

Azua said there were two patient transporters when she first started her job, but soon after being hired, she became the only patient transporter for a 12-story medical building. Azua said she asked Kaiser if she could have some help, but instead, they hired someone else in a different department. She said she is running back and forth all day between the entire hospital, and she often can't respond to calls because she is already behind on transporting other patients. Usually, this results in many patients waiting longer than they should.

Azua said as a patient, she scheduled a mammogram at the location where she works in July 2023, and they told her they didn't have any appointments until Dec. 2023. She said for her, it was just a routine check-up, but she thinks about patients who suspect something is wrong and try scheduling an appointment but are met with an appointment many months later.

Azua said they used to have a receptionist on every floor at her location, but they've replaced them with electronic check-in machines. She said if someone doesn't know how to use technology or needs assistance, there are often long waits to be assisted by the one receptionist they now have.

Azua said right now she makes $20.25 an hour, which she doesn't feel like is enough, especially because she is doing the work that two people used to. She said she feels like her wage isn't enough because the price of many essentials have risen.

Azua said moving forward, her union is going back to the bargaining table with Kaiser, and if they still cannot come to an agreement by the end of September, she and 3,000 other workers at the Kaiser Permanente Franklin Medical location will go on strike again in November.