Our own Phil Wilson recently contributed analysis to a follow-up report on a two-month long Boston Starbucks strike. In the end, the workers picketed around the clock with little to no benefit, and in the case of the 10-week-long Kaiser Permanente mental health worker strike in California, the results aren’t too different.
The longest U.S. strike by mental health staffers failed to solve the core grievances that prompted 2,000+ workers to head to the picket lines. The strike-ending agreement mainly includes an inflation-canceling 13% pay hike (spread over four years) for therapists. Kaiser will also attempt to hire more therapists to ease scheduling concerns, although again, these results pale in comparison to the strike’s magnitude.
Still, those healthcare worker unions continue to flirt with striking. Earlier this year, we observed a new trend in doctors joining unions, and at California’s Santa Clara Valley Medical Center, 450 physicians could strike and leave the healthcare system in a lurch.
More union news from healthcare and other industries:
- Chicago nurses at Community First Medical Center signaled an impending three-day strike while the SEIU blasted working conditions.
- California nurses at Alta Bates Summit Medical Center signaled a 5-day strike at multiple California campuses. In Fresno, nursing home workers took a different route by carrying out a six-hour fast to raise awareness of staffing issues.
- Minnesota saw twin mental healthcare worker strikes (at Abbott Northwestern and Mercy Hospital-Unity Campus) for three days as a follow-up to 15,000 nurses striking in September across the state.
- Kansas could soon see 600+ nurses from one of the state’s biggest hospitals, Ascension Via Christi St. Francis, unionize after filing for an election.
- Kroger grocery workers from 80+ Ohio stores won’t strike due to a new contract after United Food and Commercial Workers negotiations.
- Facebook parent company Meta watched 250 janitors go on strike in multiple locations in the Bay Area. Although the strike was considered indefinite, a new contract materialized within a week.
- Costco avoided a potentially massive strike by 18,000+ Teamsters members after the union announced a new three-year contract.
In addition, California’s quest to significantly hike minimum wage might soon lead to private-facility healthcare workers reaching $25 per hour. After plenty of back and forth, the issue will head to voters in November.