LOS ANGELES, CA — As health care workers continued to hold the line in the fourth week of striking, 31,000 nurses and health care professionals with United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals are calling on Kaiser Permanente to stop stalling at the bargaining table and reach a settlement that returns experienced, dedicated workers to their patients as quickly as possible.

While union bargaining teams are currently negotiating 15 local agreements — including five first contracts — covering thousands of health care workers across California and Hawai’i, Kaiser has yet to return to the national bargaining table. Bargaining teams say real progress has been made, with conceptual agreements reached at multiple tables. But Kaiser continues to delay resolution on issues that should be straightforward, keeping workers off the job and away from the patients who depend on them.

“It has felt very painful because you operated for so long under the assumption that your employer really valued your services and cared about the impacts you made for members,” said Emily Hardy, a certified nurse midwife at the Redwood City Medical Center. Hardy says going on strike was a “last resort” after two years of negotiations for the nurse midwives. “To hear ‘we want to lower retirement and keep wages stagnant’ does not tell me that you value (us).”

At the center of this week’s negotiations is the issue of retroactive pay — wages owed to workers for the period of delay caused by Kaiser’s slow-walking of the bargaining process.

Union members’ goals are clear: finalize all local agreements, secure retroactive pay for workers, settle historic first contracts, and return members to work — and to their patients — with dignity and results.

Additionally, 500 UNAC/UHCP optometrists with Kaiser, whose contract expires next week, voted with a 92% yes vote to authorize a strike of their own if a contract is not reached.

Bargaining for a national agreement has been stalled since December, when Kaiser stepped away from negotiations. UNAC/UHCP has filed an unfair labor practice charge with the National Labor Relations Board, alleging Kaiser attempted to bypass the agreed-upon national bargaining structure.

UNAC/UHCP negotiating teams remain ready to resume national negotiations immediately and ramp up local negotiations.