Thousands of mental health workers and nurses have walked off the job at Kaiser Permanente locations Wednesday throughout the Bay Area for what is expected to be a one-day strike.
Kaiser said its facilities in the Oakland, Santa Rosa and Santa Clara will remain open during the one-day strike but that they might have to reschedule elective surgeries or non-urgent appointments.
About 2,400 mental health care workers have walked off the job at Kaiser locations throughout the state, with many picketing outside the Oakland location.
Around 23,000 nurses are also participating in the strike, showing sympathy for the mental health therapists, social workers and psychologists who’ve been negotiating for a new contract since the last one ended in September.
Among the contract disputes, the mental health workers said Kaiser is using artificial intelligence to do the initial patient assessment, which they argue is one step towards a complete replacement of their jobs.
The mental health workers also added that patients are being assessed over the phone by clerical workers, people not trained in mental health treatment.
Kaiser said that it’s not true that they are going to replace mental health care workers with AI, pointing to the fact that they’ve significantly increased the number of mental health clinicians over the past five years.
The union disputes that assessment.
Both sides met on Thursday, and Kaiser said another bargaining sessions is scheduled for Wednesday March 25.