The statement added: “Our priority is to reach an agreement that ensures we can continue to provide market-competitive pay and outstanding benefits. In a separate statement, a Kaiser Permanente spokesperson dismissed picketing as an attempt by the unions to gain leverage in bargaining and disputed the union’s complaints about wages. In a statement Kaiser Permanente provided the company said it had filled 6,500 coalition jobs this year as part of plans to hire 10,000 new workers and claimed average staff turnover is 8.5% compared with 21.4% for the healthcare industry as a whole. It’s time to start taking care of your employees.” We’re all asking Kaiser to do the right thing, invest in your employees, invest in the people who have stuck with you for years, through a global pandemic. “Kaiser used to be the best, they were always the gold standard, and they’re not any more. “We used to have applicants lined up for blocks to get training just to be at Kaiser Permanente and I’ve never seen this ever in my 17 years here where we can’t even get one single applicant for a job,” she said. The union is asking for a $ 25-an-hour wage floor for all positions. Mayes said that even with new job openings, the company can’t get enough applicants because the pay is lagging and no longer competitive. “Kaiser Permanente then telling me that I’m overpaid? And what does that look like for bargaining when we’re saying well, we’re very clearly not and here’s the numbers that support it.” My husband is a journeyman carpenter, has a union, works full-time and has worked overtime since the pandemic as well and we’re always operating in a deficit every single month,” said Mayes. We don’t go out to eat, we meal prep, and it’s still not sustainable. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. For more information see our Privacy Policy. Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain info about charities, online ads, and content funded by outside parties. Megan Mayes, a patient access representative at Kaiser Permanente in Portland, Oregon, for 17 years, said when Covid-19 hit, she and many of her co-workers were putting in 60 to 70 hours a week to help keep up with the high demand.ĭespite those extra hours, she said, the high cost of living and inflation have made it difficult for Mayes and her family to make ends meet financially. Over the past five years, Kaiser Permanente has reported over $21bn in profit, while paying 49 corporate executives at least $1m each annually. The non-profit reported a profit for the first quarter of 2023 of $1.2bn after reporting losses in 2022. Kaiser Permanente is one of the largest healthcare providers in the US, serving 12.7 million members in California, Washington, Oregon, Georgia, Hawaii, Washington DC, Maryland and Virginia. “I know that Kaiser is making a whole lot of money and I think it’s just very sad that not only me, but some of my co-workers, are having to ask for government assistance just so we can keep up.” “Currently, I live in just a one-bedroom apartment with me, my wife and three kids just to be able to live close to where I work,” said Ross. “I’m struggling,” said Ross, who is applying for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, the federal food assistance program, for his family. He said the understaffing affects patients who aren’t able to receive their meals on time, often having to wait for hours while Ross and his co-workers have to do the work of two to three people to try to keep up. Trayvonne Ross, a senior food service worker at Zion medical center in San Diego, California, for three years, claimed his department was understaffed and had trouble retaining workers due to low pay and the high cost of living in the area. Workers fighting for a new contract have criticized Kaiser Permanente over chronic understaffing, high workloads that worsened during the Covid-19 pandemic and lagging wages as the cost of living and inflation has risen substantially in recent years. The coalition said that in a recent bargaining session, Kaiser Permanente claimed workers at the non-profit “make too much money” while the CEO is paid a salary of $16m a year. The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions represents workers in seven states and Washington DC.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |