Pharmacy and lab employees at Kaiser Permanente in Riverside County, the rest of Southern California and Bakersfield will end their three-day targeted unfair labor practice strike Thursday.
“Our strength and solidarity this week proved we are prepared to escalate again if Kaiser refuses to respect workers,” the United Food and Commercial Workers, which represents the striking workers, said in a statement.
The UFCW members walked off the job at 7 a.m. Monday to protest what they call “Kaiser’s labor violations throughout negotiations that have prevented frontline health care workers from getting the fair contract they deserve.” They are set to return to work at 5 a.m.
UFCW Southern California locals represent over 4,000 Kaiser Permanente frontline health care employees who work as pharmacy assistants, pharmacy technicians, clinical lab scientists, medical lab technicians and clinical and administrative workers in Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura, and Kern counties.
Kaiser Permanente has 50 locations in Riverside, 17 in Palm Desert, nine in Indio and five in Coachella, according to its website.
Meanwhile, roughly 31,000 members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals will continue their strike, vowing to stay on strike until they receive a satisfactory contract offer.
UNAC/UHCP members include registered nurses, pharmacists, nurse anesthetists, nurse practitioners, midwives, physician assistants, rehab therapists, speech language pathologists, dietitians and other specialty health care professionals.
According to union officials, in December, UFCW and other unions with the Alliance of Healthcare Unions filed Unfair Labor Practice charges with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging Kaiser unlawfully refused to bargain in an attempt to bypass the agreed-upon national bargaining process and interfere with good-faith negotiations that had been ongoing since April 2025.
They say the contract covering UFCW pharmacy employees across Southern California expired on Nov. 1, and the contract covering UFCW CLS/MLT employees across Southern California expired on Feb. 1.