From today’s San Diego Union-Tribune:
Kaiser Permanente Zion Medical Center in Grantville is among more than 40 facilities statewide that will be picketed this week in a worker demonstration billed as a protest over ongoing worker shortages that “can lead to long wait times, mistaken diagnoses and neglect.”
Zion is listed as one of 13 Kaiser facilities that will have picketers out front on Wednesday. The bulk of demonstrations are scheduled for Tuesday through Thursday with the final two at Bay Area hospitals Friday. In all, pickets are scheduled for more than 40 Kaiser facilities.
In an email, a Kaiser San Diego representative said that there are currently no plans to reschedule procedures as a result of the protest, which was characterized as a “picketing action only, not a strike.”
In a statement, the health care giant said it is currently in contract negotiations with the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents about 88,000 of its employees.
“It is clear that the picketing announced by the Coalition is not about drawing attention to new issues, but rather an attempt to create some kind of bargaining leverage,” Kaiser’s statement says.
In its own statement, the union does note that tens of thousands of Kaiser workers are “less than three months away from their contract expiration,” but draws the focus not to bargaining for better wages and benefits but rather toward what is characterized as “understaffed hospitals and clinics.”
Read the complete story here.