Mental health clinicians at Kaiser Permanente (KP) in Northern California have been on strike for six weeks. Workers are determined to maintain better working conditions and access to more meaningful KP patient care.
KP Mental Health is notorious for long wait times for initial and follow-up visits. Despite increased attention to the need for mental health care and legislation enacted since the pandemic, KP leaders have refused to engage in meaningful negotiations with mental health unions. KP hopes to keep pressuring workers to maintain a broken system that allows many in need to slip through the cracks.
KP came to Santa Cruz with proposals for a new downtown clinic and a new hospital in Live Oak.
Santa Cruz residents should encourage the oversight board to demand that KP leaders first participate in meaningful negotiation sessions with mental health workers.
— Emmy Femi, Santa Cruz
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