I won't steal too much of the Guardian's thunder here—this is a good article from them you should read which lays out what's going on here—but to summarize briefly the union contract at Kaiser Permanente just expired, meaning that starting tomorrow 75,000 of their workers could be on strike. Says the Guardian:
The strike will hit hundreds of facilities in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Virginia and Washington DC. The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions noted that if they don’t see movement at the bargaining table in response to the strike, another longer strike that includes additional workers in Washington will be called.
By far the biggest issue motivating workers here is staffing—staffing shortages have particularly plagued the healthcare industry since the COVID-19 pandemic began. They've driven several strikes, near-strikes, and unionization efforts that have been profiled on this account. This is just the chickens of that matter finally coming to roost at the top. But staffing is not the only issue that workers are fighting for: they're seeking 5.75 to 6% raises; trying to protect themselves from outsourcing; and winning the right to organize a union at any medical system acquired by Kaiser Permanente among other things.
Kaiser Permanente's frontline healthcare workers union reached a tentative deal with the company on Friday, moving toward settling a payment and staffing dispute that had sparked the largest recorded strike in the U.S. medical sector.
[...]Terms of the agreement were not disclosed, but higher pay and increased hiring to address what union officials called crisis-level staffing shortages topped the list of demands. The previous four-year contract expired on Sept. 30.
