This article is reprinted from the Speak Out Now healthcare newsletter at Kaiser and Highland Hospitals in Oakland, CA.
Southern California mental health workers at Kaiser are still on strike. They are now engaged in the longest mental health strike in U.S. history. To escalate their tactics against Kaiser, 8 mental health workers at Kaiser engaged in a 5 day hunger strike from April 8 through 12th.
Asked about what drove them to hunger strike, one of the striking mental health workers said, “Kaiser’s trying to starve us out, that’s clear — so, give them what they want.”
Mental healthworkers at Kaiser were also quoted saying that they think Kaiser’s reluctance to meet their demands is linked to the fact that the contract for the Alliance of Health Care Unions will expire at the end of September. The Alliance of Health Care Unions is a federation of 21 unions representing workers at Kaiser across the country. If mental health workers hold out and win their demands, Kaiser is afraid this may embolden other sections of the workforce in their contract fights.
The determination of workers to do this is incredible, and the fact that workers are forced to do this shows the lengths that Kaiser is willing to go to protect their bottom line against workers’ interests.
Click here to read the article printed in the 04-23-25 Healthcare Newsletter
