Thousands of Kaiser workers in the Bay Area were back on the picket lines Friday for day three of what has been called the largest health care workers strike in U.S. history.
The strike was scheduled for three days, so workers are expected to return to their jobs Saturday.
Meanwhile, Kaiser released a statement Friday about the status of talks.
"The next bargaining session has been scheduled to begin on October 12," the statement reads. "We look forward to reaching a new agreement that continues to provide our employees with market-leading wages and benefits, and ensures our high-quality care is affordable and available to meet our members’ needs."
Get a weekly recap of the latest San Francisco Bay Area housing news. Sign up for NBC Bay Area’s Housing Deconstructed newsletter.
The union that represents the striking workers and Kaiser management have had ongoing negotiations, and according to Kaiser, they have made progress.
The main issues behind the walkout are cost-of-living wage increases and lack of staffing, the union says.
"Frontline health care workers continue to await meaningful action by Kaiser executives to address our key priorities, including safe staffing, outsourcing protections for incumbent health care workers and fair wages to reduce turnover," Gwendolyn Holloway, a contact lens technician at Kaiser Vallejo, said in a statement.
Local
The workers on strike include medical assistants and techs working in X-ray and radiology. About 75,000 nationwide are participating in the walkout, with about 19,000 in the Bay Area.
They have said Kaiser, the largest nonprofit health care provider in the country, has yet to return to pre-pandemic staffing levels, and as a result, patients are having to wait weeks or months for appointments.
Nurses and doctors are not involved in the strike, and emergency rooms remain open.
Some non-urgent appointments and elective procedures might have to be rescheduled because of the strike, and some outpatient pharmacies are closed.
The strike is expected to last until 6 p.m. Friday, unless the two sides reach a deal before then.
