The Associated Press (“AP News”) reports that roughly 75,000 Kaiser Permanente employees are striking today in California, Colorado, Oregon, Washington, Virginia and Washington, DC over wages and staffing shortages – marking the latest major labor unrest in the United States (“US”).
Kaiser Permanente is one of the country’s larger insurers and health care system operators, with 39 hospitals nationwide. The non-profit company, based in Oakland, California, provides health coverage for nearly 13 million people.
Those picketing include licensed vocational nurses, home health aides and ultrasound sonographers, as well as technicians in radiology, X-ray, surgical, and pharmacy and emergency departments – but not the company’s medical doctors.
The AP News article may be read HERE.
There seems to be a lot of labor unrest in the US right now! Unlike those working in manufacturing industries and not dissimilar to critical workers such as airport traffic controllers, any time health care workers go on strike, lives are at stake. Delays in office visits, lab tests, and emergency or urgent care appointments and assessments can mean the difference between life-saving care and death.
Let’s pray that this situation justly and quickly resolves!