Health-Care Workers Strike In Northwest

Wed., Sept. 3, 1997

Associated Press

About 2,000 service workers went on strike Tuesday at Kaiser Permanente medical and dental offices in Oregon and southwest Washington.

Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center in suburban Portland and clinics around the region remained open, with managers and non-union replacement workers taking over for medical, dental and clinical assistants, licensed practical nurses, housekeepers, orderlies and phone operators.

About a dozen strikers picketed in front of the Bess Kaiser emergency center in north Portland. Armed security guards stood by the front entrance.

The health maintenance organization serves 415,000 members.

Contract talks broke off late Monday night, primarily over a company proposal that workers cover 10 percent of the cost of their medical benefits.

“We’ve negotiated this arrangement with five other unions, including registered nurses and others,” said Jim Pruitt, Kaiser’s director of labor relations.

A union spokesman said the other unions could better afford the 10 percent.

But Pruitt said Kaiser benefits have been too high for the company to maintain a balance.

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