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Speaker 1: On, more than seventy five thousand Kaiser Permanente workers have

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Speaker 1: walked out for a three day strike against the healthcare provider.

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Speaker 1: It could stall services for nearly thirteen million people in

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Speaker 1: the United States. Healthcare workers are on strike to demand

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Speaker 1: better safer care for their patients and living wages for

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Speaker 1: frontline workers. Let's bring in Service Employees International Union International

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Speaker 1: President Mary Kay Henry for some perspective. Mary Kay, thanks

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Speaker 1: very much for your time. Maybe you can outline for

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Speaker 1: us what has been the key concern from your vantage point.

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Speaker 2: Well, Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers are burnout and fed up,

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Speaker 2: and they want Kaiser to address the staffing crisis and

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Speaker 2: ensure that they can deliver safe patient care to every

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Speaker 2: Kaiser member and have living wages for frontline workers that

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Speaker 2: carried us through the pandemic. And I think you know,

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Speaker 2: Kaiser made three billion dollars in profits just in the

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Speaker 2: first half of twenty two twenty three, so we are

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Speaker 2: fully backing the demands of the seventy five thousand healthcare

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Speaker 2: workers that are own strike.

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Speaker 3: Mary Kay, there's I think two very important differences between

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Speaker 3: this strike and that of the UAW. Not that cars

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Speaker 3: aren't important, but these workers are truly essential. The workers

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Speaker 3: you represent really are at hospitals, at nursing homes, also

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Speaker 3: teachers in public schools and universities, cops for example. So

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Speaker 3: we need these kinds of workers. And then, in terms

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Speaker 3: of the Kaiser Permanente strikes specifically, it's not just about

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Speaker 3: the workers and what they want. They're also worried about

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Speaker 3: their patients. Tell us about that separate part of it.

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Speaker 3: What's the concern about patient care that SEIU workers don't

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Speaker 3: think is good enough.

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Speaker 2: Well, if there aren't enough staff in ther for example,

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Speaker 2: patients who finish their surgery can't be transported into the

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Speaker 2: recovery room quickly enough for the surgical room to be

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Speaker 2: cleaned and sterilized for the next patient, and so everything

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Speaker 2: backs up. And that's just one example of thousands of

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Speaker 2: examples I could give you of when short staffing impacts

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Speaker 2: patient care. And that's why workers who have been bargaining

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Speaker 2: for months and didn't want to go on strike finally

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Speaker 2: felt like they had to take strike action in order

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Speaker 2: to get Kaiser to bargaining good faith, to address the

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Speaker 2: staffing crisis and to raise frontline wages.

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Speaker 3: Are you having are you hearing concerns also from patients themselves.

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Speaker 3: I mean it strikes me that in that kind of scenario,

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Speaker 3: Kaiser permanente, if they're you're insure, they're responsible for making

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Speaker 3: sure there is enough staff and if you get you know,

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Speaker 3: an infection, because they have understaffed oers, I would guess

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Speaker 3: they're liable to be sued.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, many Kaiser patients stand in solidarity with the demands

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Speaker 2: that the workers are making because they've experienced over the

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Speaker 2: past three years, since we came out of the global

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Speaker 2: health pandemic and people have returned to regular preventative care,

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Speaker 2: they've experienced the staffing shortage by longer wait times on

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Speaker 2: the phone, or longer wait times in clinics, or the

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Speaker 2: inability to get from the er to the floor and

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Speaker 2: the hospital. And so there's multiple impacts of the staffing

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Speaker 2: shortage that Kaiser patients experience. And you're right, that's what

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Speaker 2: makes a healthcare workers strike unique. Workers are striking on

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Speaker 2: their own behalf, but also because they care deeply about

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Speaker 2: the mission of their employer, which is to provide quality,

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Speaker 2: safe healthcare for everyone.

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Speaker 1: Bloomberg Law has estimated this Kaiser strike would be the

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Speaker 1: largest for the US healthcare industry by at least twenty

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Speaker 1: thousand workers. And since we have highlighted some of the

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Speaker 1: other labor disruptions we have seen across the United States,

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Speaker 1: Mary Kay, what can you tell us about the length

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Speaker 1: of time We talked about the initial time frame here,

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Speaker 1: but at a time when there's worries about the overall

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Speaker 1: economy and disruptions to workforces, what kind of time frame

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Speaker 1: shall we be thinking about longer term here?

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Speaker 2: Well, the workers serve the required ten day notice for

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Speaker 2: a three day unfair Labor practice strike and that concludes tomorrow,

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Speaker 2: and bargaining was going on yesterday during the first day

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Speaker 2: of the strike. I think it has not happening today,

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Speaker 2: and we'll see if tomorrow the employer returns to the

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Speaker 2: table and is able to settle this dispute. If it

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Speaker 2: doesn't get settled, the workers will vote again to authorize

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Speaker 2: their bargaining committee to call additional strikes.

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Speaker 3: What are the workers actually asking for? We know, in

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Speaker 3: the case of the UAW, they want at least a

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Speaker 3: thirty percent pay rise. They want to find mentioned benefits,

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Speaker 3: defined benefit pensions, and they want I believe they still

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Speaker 3: are pushing for a four day work week. What about

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Speaker 3: these Kaiser Permanente workers. What are they asking for?

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, the wage demands was made early in

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Speaker 2: the bargaining and my recollection is that the initial demand

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Speaker 2: was seven percent annually for the four years of a contract.

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Speaker 2: But I think the bargaining committee is in discussion about

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Speaker 2: that demand.

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Speaker 1: Now, before I let you go, Mary Kay, just for

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Speaker 1: obviously you've highlighted some of the stress that workers have

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Speaker 1: felt and the requests they have. How should those who

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Speaker 1: are watching this as patients who maybe have non essential

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Speaker 1: services and they're seeing some of these headlines, how how

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Speaker 1: should they navigate through all this as well?

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Speaker 2: Well, you know, the union has set up a phone

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Speaker 2: center to help people navigate. What we ask for is

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Speaker 2: patients support for the workers demands, because we want them

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Speaker 2: to stand in solidarity with us to address the staffing

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Speaker 2: crisis and make sure we're adequately staffed to provide the

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Speaker 2: care that we believe they deserve and that they've been demanding.

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Speaker 2: And so I think patients is the most important thing

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Speaker 2: for Kaiser members that are watching now and to stay

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Speaker 2: connected to the news about what workers are able to achieve.

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Speaker 3: Mary Kay, great talking to you. Thanks so much for

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Speaker 3: joining us SEIU International President Mary Kay Henry talking to

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Speaker 3: us about workers striking Kaiser Permanente