Kaiser can’t hide its greed anymore. As an employee who has been working for Kaiser Permanente for over 30 years, what they are saying to Colorado caregivers is that we are not valued and that we do not matter.
Kaiser has lost its way, and my coworkers and I are standing up to get them back on track.
In health care, our passion is working with patients and consistently coming up with better ways to best deliver care and serve our communities. We put our blood, sweat and tears into working every single day to make Kaiser the best place to receive medical care.
The partnership between workers and Kaiser management over the last 20 years has been successful in raising the level of compassionate care and good jobs in our communities. I remember the days when Kaiser treated their workers with dignity and respect. But now, what we’ve seen is a Kaiser on a very different path.
Despite suffering losses in the Colorado market in prior years, Kaiser, a “non-profit,” has made $5.2 Billion in operating income — commonly known as profit — at the national level in only the first six months of this year. That’s more than they’ve made in an entire year, ever.
Kaiser is prioritizing salaries to top executives, boosting their CEO’s salary by 60%, totaling $16 million or almost $8,000 per hour. Growing substantially in recent years, now over 35 executives make over $1 million per year.
For a “non-profit” Kaiser is flush with funds to invest in their workforce. But at a time of skyrocketing costs for working people, they expect over 3,000 frontline caregivers in Colorado to survive with the lowest raises in decades.
The cost of living in Colorado continues to increase as our wages are falling behind. We are being asked to work longer hours in facilities that are understaffed and lacking resources. Kaiser has forgotten that we are the frontline healthcare workers who are the driving force behind our shared success.
So what’s truly holding them back from paying wages that workers deserve after years of labor and dedication? Why do they keep telling caregivers they are paid too much and need to accept lower raises and pay more for our own healthcare?
The values-based Kaiser that put employees and patients first seems to have eroded, jeopardizing the most successful labor-management partnership in the country. For over twenty years, our labor-management partnership has improved employee morale, solved problems within the workplace, and improved patient care through innovation and a true collaboration.
Today’s Kaiser illegal refused to bargain with us for over a year. As a result, the National Labor Relations Board issued several complaints against Kaiser for illegal behavior during these negotiations.
Based on their unfair labor practices and unreasonable contract demands, over 3,000 Kaiser workers in Colorado stand on the precipice of a potential strike. If Colorado caregivers go on strike, we will join 85,000 workers nationwide in the largest private-sector U.S. work stoppage in over two decades.
Going on strike is not an easy decision, but for the frontline staff we all depend on to keep us healthy, it is our last resort to ensure dignity at work, good jobs in our communities, and great patient care.
Join us in calling upon Kaiser to return to its core values and get back on track in treating frontline workers fairly and delivering high-quality care to our Colorado communities.
Shelly Fowlkes is a Kaiser Permanente worker and has been a member of SEIU Local 105 for over 30 years.
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