(Reuters) -Kaiser Permanente’s frontline healthcare workers union reached a tentative deal with the company on Friday, moving toward settling a dispute over staffing levels and pay that had sparked the largest recorded strike in the U.S. medical sector
The company and the union representing healthcare workers resumed negotiations on Thursday, more than a week after contract talks broke off at the start of a 72-hour strike by 75,000 nurses, medical technicians and support staff.
“We are excited to have reached a tentative agreement with the frontline health care workers of the @UnionCoalition this morning,” Kaiser Permanente said on social media platform X.
Terms of the agreement were not immediately disclosed, but higher pay and increased hiring to address what union officials called crisis-level staffing shortages topped the workers’ list of demands. The previous four-year contract expired on Sept. 30.
The company has acknowledged staffing shortages plaguing the entire healthcare sector, a consequence of occupational “burnout” from the pandemic, leading to more than 5 million medical workers leaving their jobs.
Kaiser Permanente and its coalition of healthcare workers unions did not immediately respond to requests for details on the agreement.
The unions had said Kaiser outsourcing healthcare duties to third-party vendors and subcontractors also was a major sticking point in talks that have dragged on for six months.
Company and union spokespersons had said on Thursday the two sides met in person late in the day at a San Francisco Bay-area hotel. Acting U.S. Labor Secretary Julie Su was present, as previously announced, to play a role as mediator, a spokesperson said.
“We are thankful for the instrumental involvement of Acting U.S. Labor Secretary,” Kaiser said on X.
The clash put Kaiser at the forefront of growing labor unrest in the healthcare industry – and across the U.S. economy – driven by the erosion of workers’ earning power from inflation and pandemic-related disruptions in the workforce.
Unions across the U.S. have grown bolder in their demands in the last two years, pressing for higher wages and better benefits in a tighter labor market.
The largest number of workers previously involved in a major work stoppage in the healthcare sector was 53,000 in 2018, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.
(Reporting by Manas Mishra and Leroy Leo in Bengaluru and Steve Gorman in Los Angeles; Editing by Shounak Dasgupta and Sriraj Kalluvila)
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