The biggest healthcare strike in US history just began

More than 75,000 healthcare workers employed by Kaiser Permanente, one of the largest nonprofit healthcare providers in the US, walked off the job for three days yesterday.

📝 The sticking points: Workers say inflation has eroded their wages, and staffing shortages are leading to employee burnout and poor patient care. The Kaiser employee union wants what it describes as competitive compensation that accounts for the increased cost of living: a $25/hour wage floor and increases between 6.25% and 7% over the next four years.

• Kaiser had countered with minimum hourly wages of between $21 and $23 next year, increasing by a dollar/year. It also said it’s hired 22,000 people so far this year.

🤔 How will Kaiser’s 13 million patients be affected?... Physicians, hospitals, and emergency rooms will not be impacted, but some facilities will have reduced staff for nursing and support roles.

📸 Big picture: Overworked healthcare workers everywhere are burning out like a bonfire at the end of a summer night. According to a statement by Kaiser Permanente, up to two-thirds of healthcare staff everywhere are experiencing burnout and more than 1 in 5 are quitting.

And the proof is in the strike pudding: per Bureau of Labor Statistics’ data from the start of 2022 through August of this year, one-third of the 42 work stoppages of 1,000 or more strikers were in the healthcare industry.