ON MONDAY MORNING, the corner of Broadway and West MacArthur Boulevard in Oakland was a hub of activity as hundreds of striking health workers held up placards and chanted slogans demanding a fair contract from Kaiser Permanente.
Around 31,000 Kaiser Permanente health workers went on strike in California and Hawaii on Monday, over negotiations that began in May 2025 for a new national contract.
The striking workers belong to the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP), which in turn is part of the Alliance of Healthcare Unions (AHCU). The AHCU is leading national contract negotiations with Kaiser.
Around 400 workers joined the picket line in Oakland between 7 a.m. and noon. Picket lines were also planned for Roseville Medical Center, and Santa Clara Medical Center, according to the UNAC/UHCP.
In a statement on Sunday, Kaiser said its bargaining team had resumed talks with the union but confirmed that the strike would not be called off while those negotiations continue.
Kaiser said plans were in place to maintain services and expected its facilities to largely remain open but said some appointments would need to be transitioned to remote visits. It said emergency rooms and hospitals would remain open.
“Our facilities will be staffed by physicians, experienced managers, and trained staff, with added licensed contract professionals as needed,” the company said in a statement.
“We’re onboarding nurses, clinicians, and other staff to work during the strike, the majority of whom have worked at Kaiser Permanente before. In addition, many of our employees have volunteered to be reassigned to work in strike locations.”
‘We wish we didn’t have to have this happen’
The main demands of the striking health workers include a greater say in the scheduling of appointments to better deliver care to patients, and higher wages adjusted for inflation since the last contract was negotiated in 2021, said Hal Ruddick, executive director of the AHCU.
“A specific issue to Northern California is that over the last two years, about 1500 employees who were previously non-union chose to organize… for a voice on the job,” Ruddick said. “And Kaiser’s response has been to penalize them by cutting retirement and other benefits, and that’s fundamentally unacceptable.”
In their statement on Sunday, Kaiser Permanente called the open-ended strike “unnecessary” and said that a generous offer was already on the table.
“Our Alliance employees already earn, on average, about 16% more than similar roles at other health care organizations, and in some markets, they earn 24% more. Our current proposal builds on that, keeping Kaiser Permanente among the best-paying employers in health care,” the statement release said.
In response, Ruddick said that those numbers are misleading and do not reflect the actual labor market for comparable health systems and hospitals.
He urged Kaiser to negotiate in good faith so that the strike would come to an end soon.
“We wish we didn’t have to have this happen,” he said. “We need Kaiser to hear the message their employees are sending them.”
Bay City News staff Kathleen Kirkwood and Thomas Hughes contributed to this report. The story was updated at 11:45 p.m.