(KGTV) -- The current contract between Kaiser Permanente and the United Nurses Associations of California, Union of Health Care Professionals expires Thursday at midnight.
Unless a deal is reached, healthcare workers say they may be forced to strike.
“We don't want to strike the nurses don't want to strike we wanna be in there taking care of our patients that's where our heart is.” Rob Jones in an RN working at one of Kaiser’s San Diego County locations.
He says after more than a year of dealing with the pandemic, Kaiser’s proposal was unacceptable.
“We're not asking for anything outrageous we're just trying to be fair and they've taken the stance they want more profits so this is where we're going.”
The union says if a deal isn’t reached by Thursday, their roughly 24,000 members will then move forward with a strike vote, which could take up to a week or more.
Kaiser sent a statement that reads in part:
We have been bargaining in good faith with the Alliance of Health Care Unions to reach fair and equitable agreements that provide our employees with excellent, market-competitive wages and benefits, and we are optimistic that we will reach an agreement before a potential strike would begin.
