BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KERO) — Healthcare employees have started to return to work after nearly seven months of protesting. The workers were fighting for higher pay, and more time to be able to work in between clients.
- Kaiser and their employees came to an agreement allowing a 20% increase in wages instead of 40%.
- Workers started to return to the office on May 8, 2025.
- This strike affected workers all throughout Southern California and will go down as one of the longest strikes in mental healthcare history.
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
According to the National Union of Healthcare Workers, the Kaiser strike has gone down in US history as the longest by mental health workers, and it is officially over. Mental Health care workers in southern California are finally returning to the office after 196 days.
Mental Health Care workers spent their last seven months having to find outside work due to them holding their ground and striking for what they believed in. Some say they had their own private practice where they continued their caseloads, while others had to work part time at other facilities to keep their families afloat.
Mayra Castro Therapist with Kaiser Permanente said "We were able to be out here for nearly 7 months on strike. We were asking Kaiser to meet us there. There were several negotiations that happened, and we made that progress. We came back last week on Thursday. Were really excited to be back and are looking forward to patients that have waited for us."
Antonia Rodarte License Marriage and Family Therapist said "Because of the uncertainty of an open-ended strike, we couldn't sustain large caseloads. For me carrying a caseload of 10-15 patients just to help me financially to be out as long as I could. For some of my colleges it was working part or full time at per-diem jobs."
In a statement sent over by Kaiser it states in part "The union was demanding pay increases that would've meant wages that were nearly 40% above what others are paid in Southern California. In January we offered the union a 19% wage increase, which they rejected at the time. This final agreement resulted in a 1% adjustment to that offer. The union demanded a change in their pension to a defined benefit plan. Instead in our final agreement, we converted their existing defined contribution plan to a new design with the same cost, to mitigate concerns over escalating costs in the future."
The new contract terms include, five guaranteed hours per week for full-time therapist to perform critical patient care, 20% wage increase over the next four years and $2500 ratification bonus, A new Cash balance Pension Plan: that guarantees retirement income unlike a 401k.
"When we decided to walk out on this strike. We did it for our patients, and we did it for the passion and the work that we do. We knew that we wanted to provide quality care, and we knew that the environment that was provided to us by Kaiser was not allowing us to provide that quality care that our patients desperately needed." said Rodarte
Since the agreement has been finalized workers have started to return to the office, their official first day back was May 8. Workers tell me during this strike they learned so much about themselves and their coworkers.
"It was wonderful to be able to know my colleges on a different level very personal. We went through a lot during these seven months, we spent the holidays together. We went from Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, Birthdays, unfortunately death in families. We spent this time together and we were able to be there for one another." said Castro
According to some workers If you are a kaiser patient you may be eligible to a few therapy sessions. They ask that you reach out to your health provider to find out more information.
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