‘Burnt out and fed up’: 75,000 workers begin largest healthcare strike in US

Kaiser Permanente workers start three-day strike, demanding wage increases and better staffing, after union contracts expire

More than 75,000 healthcare workers at Kaiser Permanente have started a three-day strike on Wednesday in the largest demonstration of its kind by healthcare workers in US history.

The workers, represented by the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, are currently bargaining for new union contracts after their current contracts expired on 1 October. Workers are demanding significant wage increases and substantive improvements to what they say have been severe understaffing in healthcare facilities that worsened throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.