More than 75,000 workers with Kaiser Permanente launched a strike on Wednesday at hospitals and medical centers across six states and Washington, D.C., the largest walkout by health care employees in U.S. history.
Kaiser workers contend that chronic understaffing is boosting the company's bottom line but harming patients and staff morale. Kaiser maintains it's doing the best it can in an industry with a shortage of workers. "A strike is not inevitable, and it is certainly not justified," Kaiser said last week in a statement as negotiations continued."We understand and share the frustration, the burnout and the exhaustion."
Employed by Kaiser for 27 years, ultrasound technician Michael Ramey said the job he once loved is"heartbreaking" and"stressful" due to a staffing crisis that he and his colleagues argue harms both employee morale and patient treatment. Interacting with patients, Ramey fields complaints of not being able to schedule medical procedures in a timely fashion."They are telling you how long it took to get the appointment, and then you have to tell them how long it will be to get results," Ramey said."There's a breakdown in the quality of care. These are people in our communities.
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