More Than 31,000 Health Care Workers in California, Hawaii Continue To Strike

[Omaha Steve]

A panel of union members call on the health care giant to return to the bargaining table in “good-faith” for contracts.

Maximillian Alvarez February 25, 2026



Kaiser employees strike in front of the Kaiser Permanente Ontario Medical Center in Ontario, CA on Oct. 14, 2025. Photo by Will Lester/MediaNews Group/Inland Valley Daily Bulletin via Getty Images

https://inthesetimes.com/article/california-hawaii-health-care-workers-strike-kaiser-permanente

An estimated 31,000 health care workers in California and Hawaii walked off the job on Jan. 26 in their ongoing battle with health care giant Kaiser Permanente. The United Nurses Associations of California / Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) strike is now in its fourth week, and more than 3,000 pharmacy technicians, pharmacy assistants, and clinical laboratory professionals represented by the United Food and Commercial Workers joined on the picket line to address workers’ demands for safe staffing, more manageable workloads, and a livable wage. In this urgent update, we speak with a panel of UNAC/UHCP members who are all currently on strike at Kaiser Permanente.

Maximilian Alvarez: Welcome everyone to Working People, a podcast about the lives, jobs, dreams and struggles of the working class today. Working People is a proud member of the Labor Radio Podcast Network and is brought to you in partnership with In These Times magazine and The Real News Network. This show is produced by Jules Taylor and made possible by the support of listeners like you. My name is Maximilian Alvarez, and we’ve got an urgent strike update episode for y’all today.

An estimated 31,000 health care workers in California and Hawaii hit the picket line on Monday, January 26, in their ongoing battle with health care giant Kaiser Permanente to address workers demands for safe staffing and more manageable workloads that would allow them to give the highest quality of patient care without burning themselves out completely. The unfair labor practice strike is in its third week, and thousands of more fellow health care workers have joined the picket line this week.

The union, United Nurses Associations of California / Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) stated in a press release this Monday, February 9, ​“More than 3,000 UFCW-represented pharmacy technicians, pharmacy assistants and clinical laboratory professionals — also members of the Alliance of Health Care Unions and all essential to safe patient care — are set to walk out in their own ULP strike today at Kaiser facilities throughout Los Angeles, Orange, San Diego, San Bernardino, Riverside, Ventura and Kern counties.

FULL story at link above.