As promised, thousands of Kaiser Permanente (per-muh-NEN-tay) employees are in the middle of a 3-day strike, here in Colorado and nationwide…
(Kaiser Striker wrap :56)
Unable to reach agreement on a new contract, those workers walked off the job Wednesday. They’re calling for better staffing, improved patient care, and higher wages. A total of about 75 thousand workers will be off their Kaiser jobs through Friday, including several thousand in Colorado. Lupe Azure (LOO-pay ah-SOOR) is out there, picketing a job she’s loved for years…
231005 L Azure- top priority :03 Q:…they’re family…
Azure works in patient transport, which in Denver is now down to a department of… one…
231005 L Azure- no help :10 Q:…me any help…
She says she’s been burned out by a lack of staffing that started about 3 years ago, working through the pandemic. Azure says the company seems to have forgotten about many of its workers…
231005 L Azure- want to do more :09 Q:…and we can’t…
She and fellow employees say while they’ll lose money these 3 days and have bills to pay, they don’t plan to lose hope.
TAG– Kaiser says while it hasn’t yet reached a deal with the coalition of unions, there are some tentative agreements, including pay hikes in markets nationwide for the next 4 years. Here in Colorado, the company says it’ll offer a minimum wage of 21 dollars an hour, and it’s already hired 10 thousand coalition-represented workers so far this year. The unions say it’s possible the strike could be extended, to as long as 2 weeks.