Thousands Of US Medical Workers Launch Strike 

Tens of thousands of the United States medical workers have walked off the job, in one of the biggest strikes in the country’s health care sector.

The walkout on Wednesday of more than 75,000 workers at Kaiser Permanente, the largest non-profit health care organisation in the US, comes as surging inflation has spurred industrial action across the country.

Most of the Oakland-based company’s facilities are in California, where scores of workers picketed outside the hospitals.

“Kaiser has not been bargaining with us in good faith and so it’s pushing us to come out here and strike,” Jacquelyn Duley, a radiologic technologist among the hundreds of picketers at Kaiser Permanente Orange County – Irvine Medical Center, said “We want to be inside just taking care of our patients.”

Others said they were underpaid and overworked.

Kaiser said its 39 hospitals, including emergency rooms, will remain open but warned the massive strike could cause delays. Doctors are not participating, and Kaiser said it was bringing in thousands of temporary workers to fill the gaps. Still, appointments and nonurgent procedures could be pushed back.

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions said it was “awaiting a meaningful response from Kaiser executives regarding some of their priorities”, including demands for pay raises and increased staffing.

In a statement on Wednesday Kairser said that while no contract deal was reached, there were tentative agreements on a number of unspecified issues. The company said it would “reconvene bargaining as soon as possible.

ALJAZEERA