File photo.

Story updated: 3:02 p.m. Sept. 14

The nation’s largest health care strike inched closer to reality this week after the Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) authorized a strike at Kaiser Permanente facilities.

The announcement follows a 98% “yes” vote to strike, which could see nearly 60,000 California health care workers walk out due to staffing shortages employees say are due largely to front-line workers’ performance bonus cuts, outsourcing, low entry-level pay and refusal to develop the workforce to fill jobs and train new staff.

If negotiations fail by a Sept. 30 deadline, the strike could move forward.

Lab technicians, respiratory therapists, cooking staff, housekeepers and other health care workers at Kaiser’s Fresno facility say that continued staffing issues have led to disagreements in the process of bargaining for new employee contracts.

The union also argues that Kaiser has neglected to increase pay to match cost of living increases.

“For weeks, Kaiser sent us messages telling us to reject a strike. Their millionaire executives implied we were imagining the delays in care our patients are experiencing and ignored the fact that our families are struggling more and more to keep up with the rising cost of living,” said Miriam De La Paz, a labor and delivery unit secretary at Kaiser Permanente Medical Center in Downey. “Instead, workers are rejecting short staffing and inadequate pay, and we will be going on strike if Kaiser doesn’t stop committing unfair labor practices.”

In June, Kaiser employees across the country picketed to protest the growing care crisis.

“Kaiser has failed to bargain in good faith with the caregivers who are doing everything they can to protect patient safety,” said Dave Regan, president of SEIU-UHW.

Earlier this week, employees —  including Kaiser employees in Fresno — outlined some of their concerns, adding that a walkout could occur in Fresno as soon as Oct. 1.

“They are extremely stressed out,” Saldaña said of Kaiser employees in a story originally published by Fresnoland. “(and) burnt out because they’re having to do the work of two to three people.”

Update:

Kaiser Permanente stated that a strike authorization does not reflect a breakdown in the bargaining process. It also does not indicate that a strike will, in fact, take place.

“It is a disappointing action considering our progress at the bargaining table,” a press release stated on Thursday afternoon. “Unfortunately, this year, throughout our negotiations we have seen Coalition leaders attempt to rally their unions’ members to thraten a strike despite important progress made through negotiations.”

Kaiser Permanente treats any threat to disrupt medical care seriously and have set in place comprehensive plans to continue access to medical care services should a strike take place.

Kaiser Permanente urges employees to reject calls for work stoppages and continue to focus their efforts on providing quality care to members, patients and communities.