SAN DIEGO - Health care workers for Kaiser Permanente in San Diego County and across Southern California began a three-day strike Wednesday in what their union says in the largest of its type in U.S. history after contract negotiations failed to produce an agreement.
According to Kaiser"several agreements over specific provisions have been reached" with the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, and the health system's negotiators are prepared to meet around the clock"until we reach a fair and equitable agreement" and avoid a strike scheduled to start at 6 a.m.
The union, however, continued circulating plans for picketing that is scheduled to begin at 6 a.m. Wednesday at Kaiser locations throughout the state if contract talks fail -- with 75,000 Kaiser workers expected to take part across California and several other states. According to the union, there will be additional pickets at Kaiser facilities across the state, including Los Angeles, San Diego, Riverside and Orange counties.
The workers' contract expired Saturday, but bargaining continued over the weekend and again Monday and Tuesday.