In the past, when I drove by a picket line, I always thought it was all about the money. It wasn't until I was that person out on the picket line that I realized it isn't always ONLY about the money. Sometimes, the employees/picketers are fighting for more. At Kaiser Permanente (KP), we are also fighting for our patients and members, for better staffing. If you have tried to get an appointment, had to go to urgent care and been turned away or gone to the emergency room, or worse yet, been in the hospital in the last few years and experienced the short staffing and frustration of the Great Resignation of 2021/2022 where more than 5 million healthcare workers left their jobs, you know what I am talking about. And for me, more important than money, is that I am literally fighting for my job as just days before our contract expired, I found out that KP does not want to re-sign an agreement that protected KP jobs from subcontracting and outsourcing, something we fought hard for in a previous contract.
So, while yes we are fighting for across the board raises to cover the cost of living after record inflation, we are also fighting for more staffing because patient care is important to us, protection for the jobs that many of us have done for a very long time is vital, and retiree healthcare benefits are imperative. We are willing to negotiate, we just ask that Kaiser do the same.
You may dislike Kaiser because you feel their premiums are too high, that they have provided inadequate care, or for various other reasons. I'm not minimizing your feelings at all, and I'm not trying to change your mind about that - I just want people to have an open mind when they see strikers walking the picket line and don't just assume it is because they want more money. As patients and employees, we are fighting for so much more. We are fighting for ourselves, but we are also fighting for the patients and members.
