Five-day strike by Kaiser Permanente workers about more than money

Kaiser employees are calling for a lucrative medical giant that handles care for more than 12 million Americans to let them better prioritize patients.
By: Mark Kreidler
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October 22, 2025
5:45 am

This column was first published by Capital & Main.

The nation’s health care workers want to be paid fairly, but that’s hardly news — you could say the same for any worker group in the United States. So what is driving the deep dissatisfaction among so many nurses, physicians, assistants and therapists?

Increasingly, the answer is simple: time and resources. In my years interviewing those on the front lines of America’s struggle to care for its own residents, the same theme emerges: Health care workers consistently report that inadequate staffing and lack of time to spend with their patients have led them to conclude that their employers no longer strive to deliver top-level care — even at health care organizations known for such quality.

“I don’t know why they choose not to do it,” said Nicole Jimenez, a registered nurse with Kaiser Permanente in California. “One of their tenets is, ‘Best patient care every time.’ Knowing that they have the resources to make that difference but don’t do it is — it’s sad. It’s frustrating.”

The recent contract-related walkout by 31,000 Kaiser employees in California, Oregon and Hawaii almost perfectly illustrates the disconnect workers feel. In a statement about the five-day strike, Kaiser officials declared that “the heart of this negotiation is a dispute about wages.”

FULL story: https://oregoncapitalchronicle.com/2025/10/22/five-day-strike-by-kaiser-permanente-workers-about-more-than-money/