Kaiser Permanente mental health professionals represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers began a weeklong statewide strike Monday to protest what they say is Kaiser's "chronic failure to provide... quality mental health care."
Picketing took place around the state, the union said, including at the following Southern California locations:
- West Los Angeles Medical Center, 6041 Cadillac Ave., West Los Angeles;
- Anaheim Medical Center, 3440 E. La Palma Ave., Anaheim;
- San Diego Medical Center, 4647 Zion Ave., San Diego; and
- Fontana Medical Center, 9961 Sierra Ave., Fontana.
"Kaiser Permanente's 2,600 California mental health clinicians -- psychologists, therapists, and social workers represented by the (NUHW) --will launch a statewide strike (today) to protest Kaiser's chronic failure to provide its members with timely, quality mental health care," the union said in a statement.
"Kaiser staff will be on 65 picket lines at more than 35 locations throughout the scheduled weeklong strike," the union said.
Picketing began in the morning, the union said.
The union hasn’t been able to reach an agreement with Kaiser since the union formed five years ago.
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“In some clinics you can get in initially, but once you get into the system ou cannot see your provider for four, five, six weeks,” said Elizabeth White, a psychiatric social worker who was picketing in West LA.
Gail Evanguelidi is the mother of an adult son with schizophrenia. She volunteers to help other families negotiate the mental health system and agrees Kaiser needs more staff.
“I cannot explain the excruciating pain you feel when you see your son or daughter and you know how much they’re hurting,” she said. “They have to sit in the hospitals from two to maybe eight months, sometimes a year, waiting for a bed.”
In 2013, state regulators fined Kaiser $4 million for failing to provide mental health treatment in a timely manner.
But a Kaiser spokesman says it has hired several hundred new staffers in the past year due to an increase in patients since the Affordable Care Act went into effect. Kaiser’s management insists they’re complying with state regulations and it’s the strikers who are hurting patients by walking off the job.
“The union has chosen to use a strategy for several years now to attack our organization, to try to damage our reputation, to make allegations that are misleading or gross exaggerations,” said John Nelson, a Keiser vice-president of government relations.
Kaiser says some patients are being rescheduled during the strike. Those who need immediate care are being treated by other staff.
A prominent Kaiser Permanente ad appeared in the Los Angeles Times Monday, warning that news about the strike may sound "like Kaiser Permanente medical offices aren't open, or that we aren't ready to serve your health care needs.
