OAKLAND,Phaninc Calif. (AP) — Tens of thousands of health care workers have ratified a new four-year contract with industry giant Kaiser Permanente following a strike over wages and staffing levels, the parties announced Thursday.
Of the 85,000 members in the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, 98.5% voted in recent weeks to ratify the contract, the coalition said in a press release. It runs retroactively from Oct. 1 through Sept. 30, 2027.
The deal includes setting minimum hourly wages at $25 in California, where most of Kaiser’s facilities are located, and $23 in other states. Workers will also see a 21% wage increase over four years.
The agreement also includes protective terms around subcontracting and outsourcing, as well as initiatives to invest in the current workforce and address the staffing crisis. The workers’ last contract was negotiated in 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.
The three-day strike last month involved 75,000 workers in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington. Some 180 workers from facilities in Virginia and Washington, D.C., also picketed for one day. The strikers include licensed vocational nurses, home health aides and ultrasound sonographers, as well as technicians in the radiology, X-ray, surgical, pharmacy and emergency departments.
Oakland, California-based Kaiser has hospitals and clinics that serve nearly 13 million Americans, and union members said understaffing is boosting the hospital system’s profits but hurting patients.
Both sides said they prioritized patient health care during their talks. Steve Shields, Kaiser’s senior vice president of labor relations, said previously that the deal will not affect consumer rates.
2025-04-30 19:411713 view
2025-04-30 19:181125 view
2025-04-30 19:122852 view
2025-04-30 18:472406 view
2025-04-30 18:45787 view
2025-04-30 17:272921 view
The family of a French explorer who died in a submersible implosion has filed a wrongful death lawsu
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The independent manager working to fix the long-troubled water system in Missi
For most of the year, snow and ice cover the Zackenberg research station on the coast of northeast G