the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
February 2, 2026
After a five-day walkout in October, about 31,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers in California are on strike again, this time indefinitely. The strikers—nurses, midwives, therapists and other classifications of workers—make up about one out of six Kaiser employees countrywide. They have been working without a contract since May.
The workers are demanding better wages and benefits, especially for certain groups of co-workers who have newly joined UNAC/UHCP, the union representing the strikers. But the main issue strikers emphasize is staffing. Nurses say Kaiser’s short-staffing is so bad that even taking bathroom breaks becomes a problem. Therapists speak of having to delay their patients’ appointments and explain how Kaiser often doesn’t fully replace workers who burn out and leave. Patients can’t get the care they need in time because of long waitlists for appointments and surgeries. Union officials reported that, in just two years, Kaiser nurses in Southern California filed 14,000 formal warnings that patients are at risk.
Kaiser, which calls itself “non-profit” to avoid paying taxes, is sitting on 66 billion dollars in reserves, and reports multi-billion-dollar surpluses (profits, that is!) year after year. While fighting its workers tooth-and-nail over wages and staffing, Kaiser pays dozens of its top executives seven figure salaries and invests heavily in the financial markets. A nurse anesthetist, who is a member of the union’s bargaining team, said that negotiations with Kaiser felt like sitting across the table from an “investment bank that poses as a health care organization.”
It’s the same throughout the U.S. health care industry, which raked in more than 4 trillion dollars in 2025.
But health care workers are standing up to the companies’ attacks. At least 38 health care strikes were reported in 2025 and, currently, more than 15,000 nurses are on strike in New York. Nurses in six other states are either on strike or threatening one.
These strikes are isolated and defensive today. That can change if the workers are able to bring them together and make them part of a larger offensive.