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Kaiser Permanente mental health clinicians begin weeklong strike

Kaiser Permanente’s 2,600 California psychologists, therapists and social workers will begin a weeklong, statewide strike today to protest the company’s understaffing of its mental health clinics, according to a press release issued by the National Union of Healthcare Workers.

In September, Kaiser paid a $4 million fine charged by state regulators in 2013 for understaffed clinics and longer than usual wait times for patients, according to the press release.

The company has more than 120,000 union members of 175,000 employees, according to John Nelson, vice president of Government Relations for Kaiser Permanente.

“Kaiser Permanente is committed to finding a solution that benefits our employees, and the [National Union of Healthcare Workers] must have the same commitment. We are committed to continuing to bargain whenever and wherever possible to avoid a strike, and we are urging our employees to resist the call to leave members and their patients for the weeklong strike called by the [National Union of Healthcare Workers],” Nelson said in a statement released to Healio Psychiatry.