Kaiser Permanente and its union’s leadership announced workers would end their nearly monthlong strike and return to work Tuesday, quashing the “largest open-ended strike of registered nurses and health care professionals in U.S. history,” per union officials.
Kaiser announced a 21.5% “across-the-board” pay increase, which it said was its original offer, in a statement.
The union attributed the end to “significant movement at the bargaining table” in the last 48 hours, while Kaiser apologized for the inconvenience on its site, with a statement that said, “The labor strike is over, and we’re restoring full services at all facilities.”
Kaiser issued a statement Monday calling the strike “entirely unnecessary,” stating it costs Kaiser more than $1 billion and the union was demanding a 63% wage increase over four years. Union officials issued a statement that Kaiser held more than $66 billion in unrestricted cash and investments at the end of 2024, citing public records.
Kaiser’s statement Monday indicated that leadership for the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals ended up accepting the health care provider’s original October offer.
“We have been informed by UNAC/UHCP leadership that they have accepted our offer of across-the-board wage increases of 21.5%,” according to an emailed statement from Kaiser spokesman Terry Kanakri. “This is good progress and moves us closer to a contract agreement.”
A representative for UNAC/UHCP leadership, which represents approximately 31,000 health care professionals, was not immediately available Tuesday.
Monday’s announcement of the strike’s end follows a challenging few weeks for Kaiser, which also involved a separate action from United Food and Commercial Workers 770 — approximately 3,000 pharmacy and laboratory workers across Southern California and Bakersfield — and a half-billion-dollar settlement with the federal government.
Both the nurses and pharmacy unions made an unfair labor practice complaint against Kaiser for refusing to negotiate a national contract, according to a representative for the pharmacy union, speaking on background. Kaiser Permanente warned its customers of a potential service interruption to pharmacies last month.
Pharmacy workers returned at 5 a.m. Feb. 12 after a three-day strike over their claims, according to a previous statement.
Henry Mayo Newhall Hospital and Kaiser Permanente also recently broke off negotiations for their service contracts, which had put the hospital in network for a number of services. Both sides claimed the other was asking for too much, regarding the impasse. Kaiser officials said some service locations might be impacted by the contract change, but the cost for in-network services would not be.
In January, the Department of Justice ordered Kaiser Permanente to pay $556 million to settle a 2022 complaint over false diagnostic claims. The federal claims indicate that doctors were pressured to add diagnostic codes, and the government was the primary victim, for “additional Medicare payments in the range of $1 billion from these diagnoses.”
Kaiser responded to the settlement with a statement that denied any liability and wrongdoing and said the allegations never interfered with patient care. The settling affiliates for the national consortium based in Oakland included Southern California Permanente Medical Group, the Kaiser Foundation Health Plan Inc. and The Permanente Medical Group.
