CNN
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In Southern California, more than 2,000 unionized mental health workers went on strike against Kaiser Permanente on Monday after the company failed to reach a new collective bargaining agreement. Ta.
The National Union of Health Care Workers (NUHW), representing 19,000 health care workers, including 4,700 mental health workers in California and Hawaii, picketed outside Kaiser facilities in Los Angeles, San Diego, Anaheim, and Fontana. and asked for salary increases and pensions to be restored. We have also increased our staff.
In announcing the impending strike last week, the union referenced a 10-week strike in Northern California in 2022 that resulted in higher wages, improved working conditions to improve patient care, and staff He said that the rapid turnover of employees was prevented. Union members striking in Southern California said their demands are consistent with what Kaiser has been offering the majority of its employees.
Josh Garcia, a psychologist at Kaiser Hospital in San Diego, said: “Unless we go on strike, our colleagues will continue to quit and our patients will continue to suffer in an underfunded, understaffed system that doesn’t meet their needs.” Definitely,” he told reporters. Statement from NUHW.
Kaiser, one of the nation’s largest nonprofit health care providers, is required by law to provide mental health services to its members even while workers are on strike.
A Kaiser spokesperson told CNN that NUHW is making “slow progress in negotiations” and that the network will continue to negotiate with the union.
The strike was a major blow to mental health jobs, including psychiatrists, psychologists, therapists, counselors, psychiatric assistants, and social workers, who are employed three times more than the average U.S. job, according to an analysis of data released by CNN in September. This comes amid expectations that the number of cases will increase at a rapid rate. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
A 2022 survey conducted by CNN in collaboration with the Kaiser Family Foundation showed that nine out of 10 American adults believe the country is facing a mental health crisis.
