Healthcare consortium Kaiser Permanente reached a tentative agreement with unions representing 75,000 hospital and facilities workers on Friday, moving to resolve the 72-hour strike over staffing levels and compensation. The strike, which began last week, constituted the largest healthcare industry work stoppage in American history.
As Valuetainment reported last week, the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions had been involved in negotiations since April but were unsuccessful in coming to an agreement before their contract expired on September 30. Coalition representatives demanded a pay raise of nearly 25% for union members. Along with better benefits like medical coverage for retirees, union leaders argued that this would attract new employees and offset staffing shortages.
Contract negotiations broke off late last week before resuming on Thursday to finally hammer out a potential agreement.
“The frontline healthcare workers of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions are excited to have reached a tentative agreement with Kaiser Permanente as of this morning,” the coalition stated on Friday morning. “We are thankful for the instrumental support of Acting US Labor Secretary Julie Su.”
Kaiser echoed this message in its own social media posts.
Excited to jointly announce the tentative agreement w/ the @unioncoalition, which we reached early Friday. It offers competitive wages + excellent benefits, and keeps KP a best place to work + receive care. The strike notice for Nov. has been canceled. https://t.co/6KFPrHu3kV pic.twitter.com/TcYqhRJCOU
— Kaiser Permanente (@aboutKP) October 13, 2023
The details of the agreement have not yet been released, but both sides have confirmed that additional updates are forthcoming.
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