2,000 Kaiser Permanente Workers Ready To Strike

Some 2,000 service workers for Kaiser Permanente in Oregon and southwest Washington are ready to go on strike over wages and benefits.

Negotiations between Service Employees International Union Local 49 and the health maintenance organization broke off and no new talks are scheduled, Kaiser spokeswoman Vicki Guinn said Monday.

The union, which has been without a contract since July 1, is scheduled to go on strike at 6 a.m. Tuesday.

Guinn said patients may notice some delays, but replacement workers will do their best to pick up the slack.

The replacements will come from the ranks of non-union workers for the health maintenance organization, including some employees brought in from out-of-state.

The service union represents dental assistants, medical records clerks, telephone operators, van drivers, orderlies and groundskeepers, among others.

Jim Pruitt, Kaiser’s director of labor relations, said the average benefit package for Local 49 workers is worth $4.70 an hour, or about $800 a month. The new contract proposal would reduce the value of the package by about $80 a month.

The union is willing to talk about a reduction of $50 a month, Henson said.

But Kaiser’s latest offer of a $79.98 reduction - a 2-cent compromise - prompted the union to leave the negotiating table.

Wages are also a sticking point. Kaiser is offering an 11 percent pay raise over the next four years of the proposed contract. Local 49 workers make an average of $11.50 an hour, Pruitt said.