LOS ANGELES (AP) — Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente workers took to picket lines in multiple states on Wednesday, launching a massive strike that the company warned could cause delays at its hospitals and clinics that serve nearly 13 million Americans.
The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, representing about 85,000 of the health system’s employees nationally, approved a strike for three days in California, Colorado, Oregon and Washington.
Some 75,000 people were expected to participate in the pickets. That includes about 180 workers from facilities in Virginia and Washington, D.C., who planned to picket only one day since many had to travel long distances to converge in Springfield, Virginia, on Wednesday, according to Local 2 Secretary-Treasurer Sarah Levesque.
Most of the facilities are in California, where scores of workers picketed outside hospitals.
“Kaiser has not been bargaining with us in good faith and so it’s pushing us to come out here and strike,” said Jacquelyn Duley, a radiologic technologist among the hundreds of picketers at Kaiser Permanente Orange County – Irvine Medical Center. “We want to be inside just taking care of our patients.”