Kaiser Permanent says the company's bargaining teams are available"24/7 to continue bargaining" with union representatives until a"fair and equitable agreement" is reached.
Kaiser said"We remain optimistic that there is still time to find agreement before any of the work stoppages called by the Coalition unions begin at 6am on Wednesday." Medical debt has become a leading cause of bankruptcyin the United States with skyrocketing costs year over year. "No, nor should it," said August.
In total, health care workers from eight different unions were scheduled to go on strike and stop working. Their contract expired over the weekend and both sides were not able to settle on new terms by late on Tuesday. Nurses, lab techs, pharmacists, X-ray techs, and food and janitorial workers were among those who planned to strike. At the heart of the disagreements are wages, benefits and staffing.