As hundreds of Kaiser Permanente pharmacy workers across the Portland metro area and Southwest Washington prepare to go on a nearly three-week unfair labor practice strike, the health care giant says it plans to work with outside pharmacies.
United Food & Commercial Workers, or UFCW, Local 555, representing the pharmacy unit, notified Kaiser that workers would strike from Oct. 1 to Oct. 21 after 99.6% voted in favor of strike authorization in early September, the union announced Sept. 20.
At the heart of the strike are both unfair labor practice claims, or ULPs, and an expired contract between Kaiser and the union. Workers and Kaiser have yet to reach an agreement on wages in a new contract. Kaiser can potentially avert or shorten the strike if it's able to reach an agreement with union workers in the coming weeks.
The union’s communications coordinator, Miles Eshaia, told Street Roots the union filed several unfair labor practice complaints dating back to 2021 over Kaiser’s anti-union actions.
“Kaiser has committed numerous Unfair Labor Practices, including failing to provide information regarding bargaining and grievances, attempting to directly deal with our members, and attempting to dictate to the Union who may serve as its representative,” Eshaia said in the Sept. 20 press release.
The National Labor Relations Board previously ruled employers committed unfair labor practices by failing to respond in a reasonably timely manner to union information requests. Employers with union-represented employers are also required to bargain changes in workplace conditions according to the Federal Services Labor Management Relations Act and cannot try to interfere with union representation elections.
Outsourcing union work
The strike could significantly impact Kaiser, one of the largest health care companies in the United States.
The union’s 1,000-person bargaining unit includes pharmacy workers across many classifications and radiology technicians. Approximately 380 members work in pharmacy spaces, including distribution centers and mixing labs.
Eshaia said the union doesn’t know precisely how many pharmacies will be impacted by the strike because there are often multiple departments on a single worksite, but he estimates “dozens” in the Portland metro area and up the Interstate 5 corridor to Southwest Washington.
“It’s not like it’s just five locations,” Eshaia said. “It’s a lot, a lot.”
Debbie Karman, Kaiser Permanente public relations representative, noted the strike notice does not mean a strike will happen.
“We are still hopeful we’ll reach an agreement before Oct. 1,” Karman said.
Still, Kaiser is preparing “contingency plans” for the strike. Among its plans to maintain pharmacy services is expanding Kaiser’s pharmacy network.
Karman told Street Roots Kaiser plans to outsource union work to community pharmacies during the strike to “mitigate any closure of (Kaiser’s) outpatient pharmacies.” The health care company intends to keep its inpatient pharmacies open.
“We have a long and productive history with organized labor,” Karman said. “We are proud to employ more union-represented employees than any other health care organization in the country.”
Ongoing negotiations
The pressure Kaiser faces from UFCW Local 555 is in concert with national pressure from unions.
While the local strike focuses primarily on unfair labor practices, the announcement comes after months of contract negotiations between Kaiser, UFCW and the Coalition of Kaiser Unions.
The expired contract was effective Oct. 1, 2021, through Sept. 30, 2023, though workers are still under the expired contract until approving a new contract.
The coalition is a nationwide bargaining unit that includes local unions representing Kaiser workers across many classifications in Hawai'i, California, Washington, Oregon, Colorado, D.C., Maryland and Virginia.
UFCW Local 555 requested to leave the coalition so it can bargain separately.
Karman said Kaiser is offering “across the board wage increase,” an enterprise-wide minimum wage and continued health benefits and retirement income plans.
The national coalition also called for an unfair labor practice strike this month. The unions submitted a 10-day notice to Kaiser on Sept. 22 of a three-day strike between Oct. 4 and Oct. 7.
Over 75,000 Kaiser workers would participate across the country. Service Employees International Union Local 49, a coalition member, represents 4,800 Kaiser workers in Oregon and Washington.
Eshaia said Local 555 is pushing for first-year wage adjustments, increased wage differentials and increased staffing in its bargaining.
“The number one issue at Kaiser is the lack of staffing,” Dan Clay, Local 555 president, said in the press release. “Workers are burning out, patients are having to wait months to receive care, and the problem is only getting worse.”
‘Best case scenario’
The union said the primary contention in bargaining is over wages.
“We were prepared to work on a deal that’s sustainable for the patients, our healthcare professionals, and the company,” Clay said in the press release. “But Kaiser has been completely unwilling to accept the real impact of underpaying healthcare professionals and understaffing job sites.”
According to Karman, Kaiser is “a leader in employee wages and benefits in every market” and said the company has a philosophy of offering wages up to 10% above market.
Eshaia said otherwise.
“The issue is more that they are so far behind the market,” he said. “(They are) so far behind other health care providers in terms of wages; that's why they're having staffing problems.”
If Kaiser doesn’t reach a contract deal with the union or agree to end the ULPs by the strike deadline, every Local 555-represented pharmacy worker will strike come October.
Eshaia said while it could happen, he has never seen an unfair labor practice strike halted by a contract agreement.
“The best case scenario, of course, is that the ULPs are dealt with in a manner before we go on strike,” Eshaia said. “The best case scenario is the ULPs reach an end.”
As the union prepares for strike action, Eshaia emphasized workers are not calling for a boycott or asking patients not to cross the picket line.
“To be clear, we want people to still go to Kaiser,” he said. “They're gonna have to figure out how to do that without the essential workers being in the lab … Do not put off medical care because we're on strike.”
UFCW Local 555 has yet to announce any pickets or actions if the strike takes place as of Sept. 26.
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