Kaiser Permanente nurses launch weeklong strike for higher wages, better staffing

The seven-day strike affects 1,200 RNs who voted last year to join the Califoia Nurses Association. They plan to hold signs and picket outside of Kaiser’s Los Angeles Medical Center on Sunset Boulevard until the hospital comes back with a fair contract. Nurses say the Los Angeles facility is considered to be the region’s hub for complicated, specialty care and since they do the most complex work, they should be compensated as such, said Karen Chan, Kaiser division director with the Califoia Nurses Association,.

“The nurses really want Kaiser to value them,” Chan said. “They feel a discoect.”

Chan said nurses say there is a lack of resources, such as enough thermometers. Such conditions need to be solved, she added, because Kaiser plans to open a medical school in Pasadena, and use the Los Angeles Medical Center as its teaching hospital.

• RELATED: Kaiser Permanente selection of Pasadena for medical school a ‘big deal’ for city

“There is a strong opposition against the medical school until they fix the problems,” Chan said.

She also said Kaiser owes nurses six years of back wages.

Patti Clausen, Kaiser’s chief nurse executive at the Los Angeles Medical Center called the strike unfortunate because it nurses have been pulled away from patient care.

“We believe the union is doing this to influence a bargaining,” Clausen said. “We are always open to continuing the bargaining.”

She said patient care will not be impacted while the strike is in effect. The hospital was able to find staff to fill in for those who walked out, including traveling nurses, Clausen said.

“We do believe our nurses are at the heart of patient care,” she said. “We don’t have staffing problems. I would love the public to know they do not have to worry about the picketing outside.”

Advertisement