Kaiser Permanente officials reiterated Saturday that they’ve made the “strongest proposal” in the company’s history to workers engaged in contract disputes, as the health-care giant faces the possibility of strikes by nurses, lab technicians, pharmacy workers and others
“Our Alliance employees already earn, on average, about 16% more than similar roles at other health care organizations, and in some markets they earn 24% more,” a Kaiser statement said. “Our current proposal builds on that, keeping Kaiser Permanente among the best-paying employers in health care. It includes the strongest compensation package in our national bargaining history: a 21.5% wage increase over the life of the contract, with 16% within the first 2 years. When step increases and local adjustments are factored in, the total average increase is approximately 30% — one of the strongest nursing contract offers in California this year.
“This proposal represents a significant investment — nearly $2 billion in additional payroll costs — while maintaining affordability for our members and customers,” the company’s statement continued.
On Saturday, United Food and Commercial Workers Local 770, representing Kaiser Permanente pharmacy employees, said it had delivered a 10-day Unfair Labor Practice strike notice to Kaiser executives. The ULP strike is set to begin on Tuesday, Feb. 3 at 7 a.m. at select pharmacy locations across Los Angeles and Bakersfield.
Meanwhile, 31,000 nurses and other health care professionals represented by the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals are expected to begin their own ULP strike on Monday.
And on Friday, UFCW locals representing Kaiser clinical lab scientists and medical lab technicians in Los Angeles, Orange, Riverside, San Bernardino, Ventura and Kern counties said their members had voted overwhelmingly to authorize their bargaining team to call an unfair labor practice strike, though in that case an actual strike has not yet been scheduled.
“Our message to Kaiser is clear: We will not be silenced,” said Christina Thomas, a pharmacy technician at Kaiser’s Lancaster pharmacy. “After repeated unfair labor practices, KP pharmacy employees are striking because Kaiser has continually refused to bargain in good faith. They need to stop delaying, stop focusing on union-busting tactics meant to divide us, and get back to negotiating a fair contract.”
Angelica Muro, a pharmacy technician at Kaiser Permanente in West Los Angeles, said workers are “fed up with being overworked, disrespected, undervalued, and with Kaiser’s illegal attempts to intimidate us out of getting a fair contract. When workers are punished for speaking up about safety and workload, patients pay the price through longer waits and delayed prescriptions.”
Kaiser said their representatives have been bargaining with the Alliance of Health Care Unions since May 2025 — “the longest national bargaining period in the history of our Labor Management Partnership. Despite more than 1,000 bargaining sessions at the national and local bargaining tables over these eight months, there has been no real movement on economic issues at the national table since the contract expired in September,” Kaiser added.
“… Because it has become clear that the national process is gridlocked, we are moving the remaining unresolved national issues to the local bargaining tables — the most effective and timely path to secure new contracts, wage increases, and enhanced benefits for our Alliance-represented employees.”
Kaiser said local bargaining “empowers each of the Alliance unions to reach full tentative agreements and ratify contracts at their local tables — bypassing the national gridlock and building on the real momentum already achieved by many local units.
“The Labor Management Partnership Agreement does not require national bargaining, and it does not make sense to return to a process that has been stalled for months. To avoid further delays, and to protect the integrity of the partnership, we are filing a petition in court to confirm up front that this path forward is valid.”