by East Hollywood, Los Angeles (KABC) – The NEWSOM government calls for a mediator to end the strike by thousands of Kaiser permanent mental health workers who walked their jobs almost four months ago.
Hundreds of mental health employees packed a Sunset Boulevard on Friday for the Kaiser Permanent Medical Center in East Hollywood. Almost a dozen were arrested in a peaceful demonstration.
For almost four months the trade union has been in strike and he insisted on Kaiser for a package for payment and benefits that is identical to what Kaiser de Noord -California unit of the Union gave.
“We are not trying to break new terrain. We just try to reach the same working environment, access to care problems that exist in North California,” said Sal Rosselli at the National Union of Health Care Workers.
However, Kaiser says that it is unfair to compare its North California Division with South California due to various demographic factors.
“We are two different business models at Kaiser Permanent, and we have two different geographical markets that are very different. At the moment the trade union is really focused on higher wages and more time away from patients,” said Dawn Gillam with Kaiser Permanente.
The impasse means that around 2,400 employees in mental health care in South California have been without work since October.
Kaiser says it was able to fill the gap by planning to use external therapists for months before the strike was declared.
“We have built up an extensive network for our external providers to see our patients. We are also very grateful that more than 50% of our employees came back to work to see their patients,” Gillam said.
But Kaiser has a history of delays on the patient. About a year and a half ago, the state of California paid a settlement of $ 200 million after the hospital was accused of not timely access to the treatment.
Striking employees say it has not improved.
“We currently have one therapist for every 3000 patients and we have one psychologist for every 57,000 patients. So the waiting times are terrible,” said Ligia Pacheco, a striking mental health worker.
The stalemate has now received the attention from Gov. Gavin Newsom. Both parties have been with him in communication and are open to his idea to start what he calls ‘targeted mediation’.
Both parties are not planned to sit down and negotiate until next month. In the meantime, the governor said that his team is ready and ready to choose a mutually agreed mediator.
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