Kaiser Permanente Strike Enters Third Week as Talks Stall

KQED's Forum

KQED

News, Politics, News Commentary

4.2 • 726 Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2026

⏱️ 55 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente nurses, pharmacists and other healthcare workers are on strike across California over stalled contract talks, staffing levels and pay. But Kaiser, the state’s largest private employer, says it’s offered its strongest wage proposal yet, with increases to come. As negotiations falter, we’ll talk about the issues at stake and the impacts on patients. Are you a Kaiser worker or a patient affected by the strikes? Guests: Farida Jhabvala Romero, labor correspondent, KQED John Logan, director of labor studies, San Francisco State University Dr. Robert Pearl, former CEO, The Permanente Medical Group; lecturer, Stanford Graduate School of Business Truc Le, certified registered nurse anesthetist, Kaiser Permanente in Sacramento Carrie Esqueda, Kaiser patient Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:36.9	From KQED.
0:39.3	This is Forum. I'm Scott Schaefer in Formina Kim.
0:43.3	Well, tens of thousands of Kaiser employees across California are in their third week of an open-ended strike at issue, wages, benefits, and more.
0:53.3	The union says Kaiser has plenty of money to pay for increased wages and benefits.
0:58.1	Kaiser responds that they've already put a generous package on the table at a time when the
1:03.1	industry is facing serious financial headwinds from things like deep cuts to health care spending
1:08.3	from the federal government.
1:10.0	We're going to dig into the issues involved and the impact the strike is having and could have
1:14.6	as it continues.
1:16.2	And we begin with KQED labor correspondent Farida Jabala Romero, who has been covering the strike
1:21.6	for us.
	...

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