Kaiser Permanente employees will be picketing in force outside five Kaiser facilities this week to protest company plans to slash 1,350 jobs in coming months. More than 5,000 union members have attended the 14 prior pickets in SEIU-UHW's statewide campaign.
This week's pickets include:
- Tuesday, Sept. 29: Kaiser Orange County -- 6640 Alton Parkway, Irvine
- Wednesday, Sept. 30: Kaiser Sacramento -- 2025 Morse Ave, Sacramento
- Thursday, Oct. 1: Kaiser Orange County -- 411 North Lakeview Avenue, Anaheim
- Thursday, Oct. 1: Kaiser Fresno -- 7300 North Fresno St., Fresno
- Thursday, Oct 1: Kaiser Santa Rosa -- 401 Bicentennial Way, Santa Rosa
The pickets are the latest in a five-week series of events held by SEIU-UHW members. They feature hundreds of Kaiser workers in purple shirts, carrying signs, chanting and speaking with patients about the effects of job cuts on patient care. The pickets take place as SEIU-UHW members and Kaiser management prepare to sit down for bargaining sessions to discuss the layoffs.
"This is a hard situation for our members," said Ronda McClelland, who works as a laboratory assistant at Kaiser Walnut Creek. "Kaiser made $620 million and is building new hospitals - and then they want to get rid of our people. But we are going to support our members and fight this to the end."
In mid-August, Kaiser announced that net income for the second quarter was $620 million. Just days later, Kaiser announced its intention to eliminate 1,350 SEIU-UHW positions statewide. We oppose this action. See full coverage of our pickets at www.seiu-uhw.org/kaiser.
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