LOS ANGELES—Nearly 2,400 mental health workers at Kaiser Permanente facilities continued to strike Thursday amid contract talks, while Kaiser officials say the union has been “slow walking” the negotiation process and planned to strike before labor talks even began.
Mental health professionals, represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers, were scheduled to strike from 6 a.m. to 2 p.m. Thursday at Bakersfield Kaiser Mental Health Offices, San Diego Medical Center, Fontana Medical Center, Anaheim Medical Center, and West Los Angeles Medical Center.
Lunchtime rallies with community and elected officials were scheduled at all five sites.
“We want to be with our patients, not on a picket line, but we can’t keep working in a system that treats mental health care like an assembly line job and denies us the time and resources to provide the care we know our patients need,” Jessica Rentz, a Kaiser therapist in Fontana, said in a statement released by the National Union of Healthcare Workers….