Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers in Fresno expect they’ll have the votes to authorize a strike by this Wednesday, local union representatives say.

Julianna Morano

Fresnoland

The lab technicians, respiratory therapists, cooking staff, housekeepers, and other health care workers at Kaiser’s facilities in Fresno say they are fed up with what they described as a staffing crisis at the nonprofit health care provider.

They’re represented by Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West, which covers about 1,500 Fresno County Kaiser employees, according to Renée Saldaña, the union’s press secretary.

SEIU-UHW’s members are casting their votes on whether to strike through Wednesday, union member and Kaiser cytotechnologist Melanie Reno told Fresnoland. The Fresno workers could walk off the job as soon as Oct. 1 if a majority of members vote yes.

“I believe it is going to happen,” Reno said. “It’s just a matter of when.”

The potential Kaiser worker strike would be the latest in a wave of labor actions sweeping California and the nation this year.

In Fresno, it would add pressure to a system that already struggling to find enough physicians to serve the population.

Kaiser leaders meanwhile insist the strike authorization vote “does not reflect any breakdown in bargaining” and called it “a disappointing action” given recent progress in negotiations in an emailed statement on Sept. 8.

SEIU-UHW isn’t the only Kaiser employees’ union taking a strike vote right...

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