Kaiser Permanente is trying to eliminate and relocate over 1,000 jobs in California which include pharmacy warehouse, parking attendant, and call-center jobs. The elimination of these jobs would be devastating not only to patients who seek care at Kaiser, but to the families of patients and frontline healthcare workers, and to local communities throughout the state. Kaiser had been a source of the good middle-class jobs that our communities need, but now it is actively destroying good jobs by moving to a model of automation or outsourcing to companies that pay low wages with few benefits.
Kaiser Permanente is a “non-profit” healthcare corporation that has abandoned its mission to serve communities in favor of earning massive profits and enriching top executives. Kaiser has made $5.2 billion in profits the first half of this year, pays more than 36 executives more than $1 million a year, including $16 million to its CEO, and sits on $35 billion in reserves.
There are four things Kaiser Needs to do:
- Restore a true worker-management partnership, bargain in good faith, and stop committing ULPs.
- Ensure safe staffing and compassionate use of technology.
- Build the workforce of the future to deal with major projected shortages of licensed and accredited staff in the coming years.
- Protect middle-class jobs with wages and benefits that can support families
We at ALADS support the efforts of the SEIU United Healthcare Workers. Kaiser's employees deserve good middle-class jobs here in California. The outsourcing of jobs to companies that pay low wages is unacceptable. We urge Kaiser to come to the table and bargain in good faith.
