As Kaiser mental health care workers enter their seventh week of a strike, Senate Minority Leader Kurt Fevella (District 19 – ‘Ewa Beach, Ocean Pointe, ‘Ewa by Gentry, Iroquois Point, portion of ‘Ewa Villages) issued the following statement regarding Kaiser’s refusal to reach a fair agreement:
“Kaiser Permanente Mental Health Workers in Hawaiʻi have been on strike for seven weeks now. As members of the National Union of Health Workers (NUHW), Kaiser’s mental health care workers are protesting the severe understaffing of its mental health services.
During the October 5, 2022 rally at the State Capitol, Senator Fevella stated several elected officials and community leaders called on Kaiser officials to do more to improve access to care for its patients who are waiting months to see a Kaiser therapist. The next day Kaiser returned to the bargaining table only to reject NUHW’s proposal and offered no further counteroffer to bridge remaining differences between the parties.
Since our rally, Senator Fevella was disappointed to learn that Kaiser has sent an email to private providers with an offer to pay $6,800 up front for 40 sessions to see five Kaiser patients during an eight-week period. Kaiser’s unwillingness to negotiate in good faith and instead pay private providers $170/person which is more than its typical reimbursement of $128/session clearly indicates Kaiser officials disregard for its own mental health workers, some of whom have 10 or more years of services at Kaiser Permanente Hawaiʻi.
Kaiser, which reported a $8.1 billion net profit in 2021 and $56.7 billion in cash and investments, would rather play a waiting game to break up this union and would rather prioritize its own profits over its patients and its own workers. It is unfair and unreasonable for NUHW members to accept Kaiser’s proposal to cut retirement and health benefits for mental health care workers that are available to other Kaiser medical workers. Kaiser’s refusal to reach a fair agreement would make it harder for Kaiser to recruit and retain additional mental health therapists, to keep its current workforce and most importantly to address a potential patient safety risk by its failure to discuss long-term solutions for patient access to mental health care services.”