OAKLAND — Thousands of striking Kaiser Permanente California health care workers walked off the job Tuesday at medical centers in Santa Clara and Oakland in a push for higher pay and better staffing.
The strike marks the largest action in the 50-year history of the union representing 31,000 workers in three states. Negotiations for a new contract for those represented by United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals ended Oct. 10. The strike is expected to continue through Sunday morning.
Health care professionals picket on the first day of the strike outside Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara Medical Center in Santa Clara on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025. (Dai Sugano/Bay Area News Group)
Outside Kaiser’s Oakland Medical Center on Tuesday, scores of clinicians marched and rang cow bells as numerous passing motorists honked their horns in support. Most of the striking workers waved signs declaring “Rehab mobilizing for a fair contract,” “Our pay scale needs defibrillation” and “CRNA will intubate for a fair contract.” CRNA — Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists — administer anesthesia.
“We are fighting for just a fair contract,” said Jessica Martinez, a certified nurse-midwife working out of Kaiser’s San Leandro hospital who held a sign declaring “fair contract now.” “We are important members of this health care team.”
Striking workers include pharmacists, nurses, midwives, physician assistants, dietitians and more. Heathcare workers in Hawaii and Oregon are also walking off the job, the union said.
Kaiser said its pharmacies and medical offices will remain open during the strike. Some appointments, including elective surgeries, may be rescheduled, while others will be shifted to virtual care, said Lionel Sims, senior vice president of human resources for Kaiser Permanente Northern California. Kaiser will bring up to 7,600 healthcare staff to work during the strike, plus employ tabout 1,000 others who volunteered to work at the strike locations, he said.
Kaiser Permanente Northern California, which has locations throughout the Bay Area, said about 2,800 of its employees are involved in the strike.
The union initially sought a 38% raise and is now seeking a 25% raise. Kaiser’s most recent offer would include a pay increase of 21.5% over four years and additions to medical plans and retiree benefits, Sims said.
Union members are also seeking to address what they described as “unsafe” staffing practices and “deteriorating patient care.” They contend Kaiser’s offer doesn’t address “years of wage freezes during record inflation, cuts for new union members, and the real daily impact these conditions have on patient care.”
Wages for UNAC/UHCP union members are at least 7% behind peer unions that were given higher wage increases by Kaiser, they said in a separate news release. Brian Mason, representation director for the union, said it had agreed to accept a lower-paying agreement during bargaining in 2021 because of the uncertain financial future during the COVID-19 pandemic, but that other unions “got much higher raises.”
“What we’re asking for now is to catch up for the times where we saw unprecedented inflation and our healthcare workers were left behind,” Mason said.
The union also expressed concern that nurses have been missing meals and breaks due to short staffing, and that nurse practitioners and physician assistants have been seeing appointment slots be double- or triple-booked, Mason said.
“This story isn’t just about numbers — it’s about patients, burnout, and a health care system at a breaking point,” the union said. “Kaiser made nearly $13 billion in profit in 2024 and holds $66 billion in reserves, yet refuses to meet reasonable proposals that would stabilize the workforce and improve care.”
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Heather Sharpe, left, a certified registered nurse anesthetist and physical therapist Kathleen West, right, take part in a strike outside of the Kaiser Permanente Oakland Medical Center on Tuesday, Oct. 14, 2025, in Oakland, Calif. Tens of thousands of frontline Kaiser Permanente registered nurses and health care professionals across California and Hawaii with the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals are taking part in the strike. (Aric Crabb/Bay Area News Group)
With the profits Kaiser has been making, they can “pay the healthcare professionals what they deserve, and still make a substantial amount of money without raising prices for anyone,” Mason said.
Sanne Jacobsen, a nurse anesthetist at the Oakland hospital, lamented seeing numerous colleagues in recent years leave for better-paying jobs elsewhere, sometimes with a 25% pay bump. She said the strike was merely “the workers voting with their feet,” with the hope that the next contract would help the healthcare giant hire more clinicians.
Jacobsen acknowledged that people may be upset at having an appointment delayed as a result of the strike.
“We are fighting for more access for patients,” Jacobsen said.
Sims, the hospital systems’ senior HR vice president, described the strike as “unnecessary and disruptive,” adding that the current contract offer would increase the health care provider’s current payroll costs of $6.3 billion by $2 billion by 2029 and that alliance-represented employees currently make an average of 16% more than healthcare peers.
“Anything beyond 21.5% will require us to further increase rates for our members and customers, at a time when health care costs are increasingly unaffordable and many are having to make the difficult choice to go without coverage,” Sims said. “We have a responsibility to do the right thing for our employees and our members and customers.”
Sims also said that the union’s claims of insufficient staffing and care “don’t reflect the facts,” and that their hospitals meet or exceed California’s mandated nurse-to-patient ratio.
A nurse midwife at the Oakland hospital, Rebecca Lesser, said her colleagues were “very committed” to ensuring Kaiser meets their requests. She held a sign declaring, “I pushed with you, now it’s time to push with us!”
“This is about maintaining our profession for the future, so we can continue to provide good care at Kaiser,” Lesser said.
Originally Published: October 14, 2025 at 9:01 AM PDT
