Kaiser Permanente mental health clinicians are back at work in Gilroy and statewide after a one-week walk-out over a dispute about staffing levels.
The healthcare giant avoided a strike by nurses this week when the California Nurses Association Saturday reached a tentative agreement with Kaiser for a 14 percent pay hike over three years.
The mental health workers’ strike began last week with the National Union of Healthcare Workers and involved seven service providers at Kaiser’s busy Gilroy facility on Arroyo Circle, approximately 1,300 in northern California and 2,600 statewide, said union spokesman Justin DeFreitas.
During the week-long walkout, mental health services were reduced with appointments cancelled and treatment delayed.
The union is hopeful that Kaiser will now return to the bargaining table, DeFreitas said.
But Kaiser contends the union walked out in the midst of negotions.
“Unfortunately, the union abandoned the bargaining process on Saturday while we and the federal mediator sought to continue negotiating to reach an agreement,” Kasier said in a press release sent on Wednesday to the Dispatch.
“We remain committed to finding a solution that benefits our employees, and NUHW must have the same commitment for its members,” the release reads.
Gilroy avoided pickets that showed up during the strike at other Kaiser facilities, including in San Jose and Santa Clara.
Santa Clara union member Steve Ode said Kaiser staffing levels have not kept up with the growth in Kaiser’s patient population.
“It’s not good when people come in for their first appointment and they have to wait weeks and weeks before they can even begin their treatment. That’s just not okay with us,” Ode said.
Kaiser counters on its website that it increased the number of in-network therapists by 25 percent between 2011 and 2014.
In 2013, the state Department of Managed Health Care fined Kaiser $4 million for “serious deficiencies in providing timely access to mental health services” and criticized long wait times at Kaiser offices and policies that discouraged patients from seeking individualized therapy.
“Like any corporation, they’re trying to reduce their costs and increase their revenue but they’re doing it on the backs of the workers who make Kaiser work—and they’re resistant to hiring more people because that costs more money,” Ode said.
On its website, Kaiser accuses the union of implying that “group therapy is an inferior form of treatment.”
