Speaking of strikes and Kaiser, at The Hill Miranda Nazzaro reports on the imminent strike of Kaiser-Permanente by 75,000 of its employees:
The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, which represents over 85,000 health care workers in seven states and the District of Columbia, said Sunday it did not reach an agreement with the organization ahead of the contract’s expiration, setting the stage for the possibility of the largest health care strike in U.S. history late this week.
Hours before workers’ contracts were set to expire after 11:59 p.m. PT on Saturday, the coalition said it remains far apart from nonprofit Kaiser Permanente on important issues like across-the-board pay increases, retiree medical plans and protections against subcontracting and outsourcing.
“Kaiser continues to bargain in bad faith over these issues and, so far, there is no light at the end of the tunnel,†the coalition said in a statement Saturday night.
Very nearly every criticism you might make of the Big Three automakers is true of Kaiser-Permanente in spades. For example, CEO pay is around $15 million at a company half the size of Ford. Kaiser is more profitable than Ford, too, when you compare apples to apples, difficult when comparing a notionally not for profit organization with a for profit one.
