"The bottom line is we don't have enough staff," she said, adding that Kaiser recorded a $1.6 billion profit for the first six months of 2011. "With profits like these, Kaiser can provide staff to see patients in a timely and ethical manner.
"We helped Kaiser earn this money, we should be rewarded for it."
See related: patient dies during lockout of nurses.
See all Kaiser Permanente posts.
Sutter, Kaiser nurses go on strike
By Melissa Murphy
The Reporter (Vacaville)
09/23/2011
...Kaiser Permanente nurses -- who are represented by the California Nurses Association and have settled their own contract -- said they were striking for their own reasons and not out of sympathy for Sutter nurses.
It just happened that on the same day Sutter nurses staged a one-day walkout, Kaiser nurses took a supportive
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stance for Kaiser mental health workers, about 1,500 of whom are represented by the National Union of Health Care Workers (NUHW) in Northern California, said Brenda Tolbert, a marriage and family therapist with Kaiser.
"They are not striking their own contract," Tolbert said. "The nurses are here to support the mental health workers. We wanted a stronger voice to protect our patient care."
In a letter to Kaiser nurses printed in The Reporter and other newspapers, Northern California Regional President Gregory Adams and Executive Medical Director Robert Pearl asserted that Kaiser is bargaining with NUHW in good faith.
They also noted the agreement with the nurses represented by CNA states, "There shall be no strikes, lockouts or other stoppages, or interruptions of work during the life of this agreement."
Tolbert said hundreds of people stood unified at the corner of Vaca Valley Parkway and Quality Drive in Vacaville on Thursday. Some 50 were mental health workers, the others were nurses who walked off the job and chose not to be paid that day.
One reason for the strike, Tolbert explained, is to stand up for better patient care.
She added that patients have to wait five to six weeks for an appointment when state law says it should be only up to a two-week wait.
"The bottom line is we don't have enough staff," she said, adding that Kaiser recorded a $1.6 billion profit for the first six months of 2011. "With profits like these, Kaiser can provide staff to see patients in a timely and ethical manner.
"We helped Kaiser earn this money, we should be rewarded for it."
At the picket line in front of Kaiser in Vacaville, Aretha Franklin's song "Respect" played on loud speakers, followed by Tom Petty's "Won't Back Down." Dressed in red T-shirts, union members and nurses waved signs that read "Some Cuts Don't Heal," "Fair Contract Now" and "Kaiser is Not Thriving."
Other reasons for the strike include changes to a health plan and retirement packages. Some of those changes will occur in 2013, others in 2014.
Sitting in the shade on the picket line, Rivka Kaplowitz explained that she has been a psychologist with Kaiser for 15 years and she is shocked the health-care provider wants to eliminate benefits for her husband. Kaiser also has proposed giving her only $100 per month toward health-care benefits, she said.
"Who will take me at that rate? They sure won't take me," she said as she pointed to the Kaiser hospital in Vacaville. "I don't get it. You're a health-care provider and you're cutting health care? It doesn't make sense."
As a psychologist, it pains Kaplowitz to see her patients only once every six weeks.
"It's good therapy to see them more often," she said. "I love my job and my patients. The work we do is essential."
Roy Chaffee works at the Kaiser call center in Vallejo and decided to support the NUHW strike in Vacaville even though he is represented by a different union.
He said if Kaiser is willing to attack the smaller unions with huge cuts, it's only a matter of time before the bigger unions will see cuts, too.
"These cuts are absolutely crazy," he said. "It's unnecessary and unprecedented. We're standing up for the patients; we're not going to sit idly by."
Chaffee said the union and those supporting its members want to keep fair wages and health-care benefits in place and protect the staffing numbers. He added that Kaiser's profits should be reinvested in the organization.
The morning wasn't without confrontation.
Before the strike started, CNA Chief Nurse Representative Melanie Alvarado said she tried to speak to the nurses on the night shift, to see that all patients were handed over to other certified nurses called in to relieve the Kaiser nurses.
"They prevented me from speaking to my nurses," she said. "They're not allowed to do that."
Alvarado, who is a Kaiser charge nurse for adult and family medicine, said the union will likely file a complaint against Kaiser because of that action.
Nearly 200 nurses between the Kaiser location in Vacaville and the satellite clinic in Fairfield walked off the job to join picket lines.
Alvarado said that, although CNA members have a good contract with Kaiser, they believe the health-care provider is picking on a little guy.
"There is no reason to do this," she said of the cuts.
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