The largest healthcare strike in US history starts as #HotStrikeSummer layers up for fall

American labor gets a clean bill of health… as another industry hits the picket lines. More than 75K nurses, pharmacists, and other union employees of the Kaiser Permanente health system began a three-day strike yesterday. It’s the largest healthcare strike in US history, as workers attempt to force Kaiser to remedy a pandemic staffing shortage that they say is hurting patients and employees.

• Seeking care: Two-thirds of Kaiser workers said they were aware of medical care being delayed or denied because of understaffing, one union survey suggested. And 11% of Kaiser’s union positions were vacant as of this spring. Staffing concerns were also behind an NYC nurses’ strike earlier this year.

• Prognosis: The US faces a healthcare-worker shortage that worsened during the pandemic — 330K quit in 2021 alone. By the early 2030s, the country could face a deficit of 300K+ nurses and physicians as the population ages. 

• Patience: Kaiser, one of the US’s largest healthcare providers, said its hospitals would remain open through the strike, staffed by doctors and replacement workers. Still, Kaiser’s 13M patients can expect delays.

Must be the season of the strike… or maybe an era. Hundreds of thousands of US workers across industries have walked off — or threatened to walk off — jobs this year. Fueling the movement: understaffing, wage stagnation, and the threat of tech like AI. Workers have notched wins in transportation (UPS) and entertainment (writers), while the dust waits to settle on other battles in automotive, entertainment, and hospitality. Meanwhile, public opinion continues to lean heavily toward workers.