A planned three-day strike by Kaiser Permanente health care employees comes to an end Friday but an agreement between union leaders and the healthcare provider is nowhere in sight.
Kaiser workers across California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington walked off the job Wednesday demanding better pay and work conditions.
That was also the last day of negotiations between the two sides, where Kaiser Permanente apparently agreed for the first time to wage increases across the board but it was not enough.
The coalition of unions representing health care workers felt the raise was not substantial enough.
There are other issues as well, such as short staffing that need to be addressed.
“It’s really hard to provide the quality care that the patients deserve when frontline workers are burned out from working short-staffed,” Kaiser phlebotomist Christina Anderson said.
Kaiser Permanente issued a statement about the latest negotiations.
“While we have not reached a contract settlement, we have been able to reach a number of tentative agreements in bargaining, and our offers to date address the unions’ priorities…,” a portion of the statement read.
No future negotiations are scheduled at this point, according to the union leaders.
The current strike is set to end Saturday morning at 6 a.m. but another could occur in November if no agreement is reached.
All hospitals and emergency departments are expected to remain open Friday.
