SAN DIEGO (KGTV) – It’s safe to say Kristynn Bennett’s been getting treatment at Kaiser Permanente for a long time.
“Basically, since I was born. I haven’t been anywhere else,” Bennet said.
But many of the health care workers at Kaiser Permanente are prepared to strike this week.
“At 6 a.m. on Wednesday, October 4th, the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Union members -- frontline health care workers -- are ready to walk off of the job to fight for our patients,” said Michael Ramey, President of OPEIU Local 30 in San Diego.
Ramey’s been an ultrasound technician with Kaiser for 27 years in San Diego. He and Kaiser both said the provider and the coalition members are negotiating and some progress has been made.
For Ramey, he said the main issue in the talks is the staffing crisis across the entire organization.
“So, we really need the executives of Kaiser Permanente to realize and recognize we don’t have the staff that is necessary to care for the patients that us front line health care workers see on a daily basis,” Ramey said.
As negotiations are ongoing, Kaiser said in a statement on Monday that while it knows and shares the frustration, it’ll do the right thing for its employees to support and reward them. But it also has to make care affordable and accessible to meet people’s needs.
The provider said if a strike were to happen, its hospitals and ERs will stay open.
Also, it would contact patients if changes in services happen like onboarding contracted works to fill roles during the strike and rescheduling non-emergency and elective services.
“I have been told that, yeah. Luckily for me, I got all of the urgent appointments taken care of before this,” Bennett said.
Despite Bennett getting her appointments done, she worries for those who aren’t able to if strike does happen.
“Like in my case, I have a procedure every three months that I’m unable to walk without but it’s labeled as elective,” Bennett said. “So were I not able to get my surgery because of a strike like some of these other people, it would leave me bed bound and it would still be considered elective.”
Ramey said hopefully both sides can strike a deal before a strike drags out.
“We just really need Kaiser to understand that if we can just provide the staffing that is needed, we can avoid all of this. We don’t even need the three days,” Ramey said.
If the strike were to happen, Ramey told ABC 10News it’ll go on for three days.
