Good morning. It's Thursday, Oct. 5. Here's what you need to know to start your day.
- Kaiser workers go on strike
- San Francisco pays tribute to Sen. Dianne Feinstein
- We tried everything at the Skechers food court
- And here's today's e-newspaper
Kaiser workers walk out
Outside Kaiser Permanente centers across California, hundreds of front-line workers in purple union shirts walked out Wednesday morning in protest of unfair labor practices. They joined more than 75,000 others across the country.
Providing almost 5 million Californians with healthcare, the nonprofit is now witnessing the biggest strike in American healthcare history.
Here's what you need to know.
Workers say they're subject to unfair labor practices
Striking healthcare workers said they have been stretched thin, making it harder to provide patients with proper care. X-ray technicians, vocational nurses, phlebotomists, surgical technicians, respiratory therapists and certified nursing assistants are among the support staff who have walked out because they feel that Kaiser executives are not listening to their concerns.
Ju'anna Isaiah is a ward clerk transcriber at the Los Angeles Medical Center. She assists patients who are coming out of surgery and helps coordinate their care in the busy facility.
Due to short staffing, she said that clerical workers like her are finding it harder to get patients to their next destination.
"We're not able to assist where we're supposed to be, because we have to go somewhere else," Isaiah told my colleague Emily Alpert Reyes on Wednesday morning. "If I'm not at one desk to answer the phone, somebody else has got to get that."
This is a problem that began before the COVID-19 pandemic, she said.
Labor leaders from the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions say that executives have engaged in "bad faith bargaining" while Kaiser says that it has negotiated in good faith.
"Front-line managers tell us 'Do what you can,'" Isaiah told me. This makes her feel upset. "Are you kidding me? Did you hear me? We need help. It's frustrating."
Wages are also a source of tension
Workers said wages are not keeping up with their long and expensive commutes and costs of living.
While both sides have reached tentative agreements on issues such as the use of temporary workers and how employee vacancies are tracked, the coalition and Kaiser have clashed over minimum wages, including what labor leaders call a "divide-and-conquer strategy."
The unions have asked for $25 as a minimum across the board starting in 2024, but Kaiser has proposed a $23-an-hour wage for California workers and $21 in other states. The company claims that it's an industry leader on wages.
How the strike will affect patients
Kaiser has maintained that this strike, which is scheduled to last till the end of Friday, will cause "minimal disruption" to its patients.
Some laboratories in Southern California, including in Glendale and Baldwin Park, closed temporarily Wednesday, while the company said it has also brought in an unspecified number of replacement workers in key areas. Patients have also been advised to use mail-order services for medications.
Still, the strike comes as patients have complained of long wait times and struggled to get appointments for care, including the new COVID-19 booster shots. Caroline Lucas, a spokesperson for the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, says that there are no bargaining sessions scheduled at this time. "We will coordinate with Coalition leaders to reconvene bargaining as soon as possible," Kaiser media representative Terry Kanakri wrote in a statement on Wednesday afternoon.
Union leaders have said that another strike could follow in November if the company and workers don't reach an agreement.
Today's top stories
Rep. Nancy Pelosi and her husband, Paul, pay their respects to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein at San Francisco City Hall. (Gina Ferazzi / Los Angeles Times)
The latest in Congress
Climate and environment
Housing and homelessness in Los Angeles
Policing, crime and courts
More big stories
Get unlimited access to the Los Angeles Times. Subscribe here.
Today's great reads
Exotic dancers check in with security before entering Star Garden for their shift after winning union recognition. (Jason Armond/Los Angeles Times)
These L.A. strippers won a union. But the dance isn't over. It's a night of celebration and reconciliation that marks the end of a tumultuous 17 months during which club management fired more than a dozen dancers, contested the results of a union election held by its strippers, filed for bankruptcy and shuttered its doors. The peace turns out to be short-lived.
Other great reads
How can we make this newsletter more useful? Send comments to essentialcalifornia@latimes.com.
For your downtime
(Mel Melcon/Los Angeles Times)
Going out
Staying in
And finally ... from our archives
Oct. 5, 1945: Strikers and non-strikers clashed at Warner Bros. Studios in Burbank. This photo appeared in the Oct. 6, 1945, Los Angeles Times. (Andrew H. Arnott / Los Angeles Times)
Oct. 5, 1945, is known as Hollywood's "Bloody Friday." In a tale of labor conflicts past, rival unions representing Hollywood workers disagreed on whether to strike and ended up in conflict against each other.
The 10,500-member Conference of Studio Unions had been on strike for six months as the patience of the 12,000-member International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees, which did not strike, ran thin. On Oct. 5, 1945, the studio unions tried to block the Warner Bros. employee entrance and violence erupted among strikers, non-strikers and the police officers who intervened. At least 25 people were injured, according to The Times. The strike ended with a labor agreement later that month. Read more about the incident here.
Have a great day, from the Essential California team
Helen Li, reporting fellow
Elvia Limón, multiplatform editor
Laura Blasey, assistant editor
Karim Doumar, head of newsletters
Check our top stories, topics and the latest articles on latimes.com.
Comments
Post a Comment