Strike Fund for Kaiser Connect 2 Care employees
Donation protected
Hello and Welcome!
Please consider donating to this strike hardship fund for Mental Health Therapists in the Kaiser Northern California Connect 2 Care Department. This fund will be helped to support those therapists who are enduring financial hardship due to striking and not being paid their wages.
We are a group of Therapists, members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers in Northern California who work for Kaiser Permanente. As you may have heard, we have been on strike for the last week, demanding that Kaiser provide better access to Mental Health Care for their members.
This is an open-ended strike aimed at getting Kaiser to end the dangerously long wait times for patients to receive mental health and substance use treatment
Negotiations have come to a standstill after a year and a half; we have reached out to all levels of leadership and management within Kaiser. The Department of Managed Health Care has revived numerous complaints about the long wait times for appoinmnets. And with the recent passages of two important Mental Health access compliance laws, Kaiser is still not meeting its members' needs. This is why we are striking.
Striking is always a last resort; we refuse to accept the status quo for our patients who have to wait up to 4 to 5 months for an appointment.
Please know that any donation made to this strike fund is not tax-deductible.
Follow the link to learn more about our strike
Below you will find more information
What is a Strike Fund?
Foregoing pay during a strike is a hardship for everyone, but it disproportionately impacts employees in the lower salary ranges or with greater life expenses. A strike fund can be used to alleviate the financial burden for those who are most impacted, lowering barriers to them participating in the strike and making it as united and successful as possible. (NUHW)
Please note donations are not tax-deductible.
How will the funds be used?
Over the last several contracts, our union has had to strike to advocate for a fair contract. While we never want to have to get to this point, it is clear our time-limited strikes have not been enough to make the more remarkable systemic change we wish to pursue. We know that an open-ended strike may be the only option to fight for a fair contract, ethical and high-quality patient care, and sustainable working conditions. We know our community’s mental health is on the line, and we are ready to stand up for it!
To sustain our endurance in this extended action, we need our community’s energetic support in all ways. One of the most needed is in the form of monetary funds.
Funds will go directly to National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) strike participants to manage hardship throughout the open-ended strike. They will first go to those NUHW members, in the Connect 2 Care depart, then be made available to the general membership. If funds are not used for any reason, they will be saved for future strike funds.
Why is our Strike Important?
After a year of negotiations for the contract ending in September of 2021, Connect 2 Care, NUHW members are joining our Kaiser Permanente Northern California NUHW comrades in an OPEN-ENDED strike.
Our goal in striking is to fundamentally change our relationship with Kaiser management so that Kaiser treats behavioral health care on equal footing with its other services. To accomplish this goal, we must demonstrate the depth of our commitment, not only by honoring the strike but by participating on the picket line. Strong participation shows Kaiser and the general public that we are united and determined to achieve our goals.
After more than a decade of pushing Kaiser to remedy its disparity between mental and physical health care, we’ve reached a point where our best path to victory is through an open-ended strike. With growing support from elected leaders, state regulators and mental health advocates, we have more power than ever to make Kaiser change its approach to behavioral health care. (NUHW)
Kaiser's mental health system violates mental health providers' ethical and legal commitments.
National Union of Healthcare Workers data demonstrates that 377 clinicians based in Northern California left their jobs at Kaiser between June 2021 and May 2022. More than twice as many as the year prior, when 186 clinicians quit their jobs, and 191 clinicians in 2019-2020. Clinicians cite unsustainable workload factors and the inability to “treat patients in line with standards of care and medical necessity” as reasons for departure from the company. (NUHW)
Kaiser's refusal to invest in mental health services has been exacerbated by the pandemic but has been a long-term issue. The average therapist caseload has gone up 13 percent-contributing to one-in-five clinicians having left Kaiser over the past two years.
Patients often have to wait six weeks and up to a few months for a return appointment across Northern California. It is unhealthy, unethical and now illegal with Senate Bill 221, effective July 1, 2022, which requires follow-up appointments within ten days. Similarly, Kaiser continues to offer mental health services as a selling point for its insurance purchasers. However, it has a small percentage of the capacity to provide what it promises to its members. According to SB 855, effective in January 2021, health insurance companies are responsible for providing full coverage for all mental health conditions. (NUHW)
NUHW is advocating for:
1) Increasing staffing so patients can be seen at appropriate intervals and improving working conditions so clinicians want to work and keep working at Kaiser
2) Significant improvement in patient access and clinician workloads
3) Retroactive wage increases and pay
4) Kaiser investment in mental health services
5) Retention of highly qualified clinicians and clinicians of color
Even though Kaiser posted an $8.1 billion net profit last year and has $54 billion in cash and investments, it’s clear that Kaiser will not make the significant changes we need to see without a strike. Over the past year, it has bargained with a complete lack of urgency to reach an agreement and a complete lack of initiative to tackle the central issues. (NUHW)
Organizer
Steven Schoser
Organizer
Newark, CA
