Kaiser Mental Health Workers Win Big After Long Strike
Source: Truthout
Their new contract includes raises of 20 percent over four years and an additional $2,500 signing bonus.
By Cal Winslow , LaborNotes
PublishedJune 1, 2025
The 196-day strike of Kaiser Southern California mental healthcare workers is over. The 2,400 therapists, psychiatric nurses, social workers and psychologists won significant gains not just for themselves but for their patients in a time of an acute national mental healthcare crisis. They are members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers.
They outlasted Kaiser, the huge California-based health maintenance organization, with six and a half months of picket lines from Modesto to San Diego. They held rallies at Kaiser’s Southern California medical centers. They blockaded the Sunset Strip. They held a hunger strike, putting their own health on the line to improve care for patients and reverse Kaiser’s record of misconduct.
“There’s no doubt that Kaiser remains hostile to mental health care and to us, they fought us every step of the way. But this is still the best contract we’ve ever won, even though it took us more than six months to win it,” said Jim Clifford, a behavioral health counselor who has worked for Kaiser in San Diego since 2001.
“We didn’t just regain a defined benefit pension, we got our biggest raises ever and more than double the amount of guaranteed time for patient care duties,” he said.
Psychiatric social worker Danielle Jones leads chants as mental health workers walk the picket line at Kaiser Permanente in Woodland Hills in Los Angeles, California, during the second day of a strike on October 22, 2024.
Sarah Reingewirtz, Los Angeles Daily News/SCNG
Read more: https://truthout.org/articles/kaiser-mental-health-workers-win-big-after-long-strike/
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