Kaiser mental health workers hit the picket line for the second time this year

Mental health therapists at Kaiser Permanente clinics across the state will go on strike starting next week.

According to a press release from the National Health Care Workers Union NUHW, inadequate staffing forces patients to wait months for treatment sessions. Mental health clinics are hoping the strike will help address health care provider access to care issues.

This is the second strike in Hawaii this year where clinics have walked out of their offices and onto the picket lines.

“Clinics will be hit for as long as it takes to solve Kaiser’s problem, creating a problem that keeps patients out for months,” said Matthew Artz with the National Health Care Workers Union.

The strikes outside Kaiser facilities will begin at 6 p.m. on Monday, August 29. They rotate picket line positions. Therapists at the Kaiser Hilo Clinic will go on strike on September 1 from 8am to 2pm.

“Getting mental health care for Kaiser patients has never been more difficult, and Kaiser’s proposal to the negotiating table only makes it worse,” said Darrah Walston, a clinical psychologist at the Kaiser Hilo Clinic. “Our only option at this point is to go on strike for as long as Kaiser needs to meet the needs of our patients and stop our clinics from being understaffed.”

Kaiser spokeswoman Laura Mott released a statement about the mental health clinics’ plans to strike.

“It is heartbreaking that the National Association of Health Care Workers is once again calling on our dedicated and compassionate mental health professionals to turn away from their patients in Hawaii at a time when mental health care is so important,” Mott said in an email to Big Island Now. “We will continue to focus on providing high quality care and urge the union to work with us in the negotiation process to finalize a new agreement.”

Kaiser and the union are currently negotiating a contract. Mott said the health care provider will continue to negotiate in good faith and is committed to reaching a fair and equitable settlement.

“We have the utmost respect and gratitude for our mental health professionals and are committed to supporting them in their important work,” Mott said. “We take service disruptions seriously and have plans in place to ensure our members and patients receive safe, high-quality care.”

Mott said strikes are a bargaining tactic the NUHW has used in negotiating contracts with Kaiser Permanente over the past 12 years.

The Hawaii strike comes as more than 2,000 therapists in Northern California enter the third week of an open-ended strike to improve access to Kaiser mental health services.

According to the release, Kaiser’s 57 psychologists, licensed clinical social workers, medical social workers, case manager nurses and chemical dependency counselors serve 266,000 Kaiser members at seven medical facilities and call centers on Oahu, Maui and the Big Island.

In Hawaii, clinics joined NUHW four years ago to seek better mental health services, but NUHW says wait times are longer because frustrated therapists are leaving faster than Kaiser can hire new ones. Kaiser, which reported $8.1 billion in profits last year, has boasted to state regulators that it is gearing up for a hiring spree, while requiring clinics to pay up and cut pensions for new hires, making it difficult for Kaiser. Recruit new therapists and keep existing ones.

“We are on strike for our patients,” said Rachel Kaya, a psychologist at Kaiser Maui’s Lani Clinic. “All we ask from Kaiser is to give us the resources to help our patients get better, and all we get from Kaiser is lip service. If Kaiser were serious about growing the mental health workforce, they would not be able to single us out for cuts that no other association in Hawaii has ever sought.

NUWH also downgraded Kaiser’s accreditation in Hawaii by the National Quality Assurance Committee NCQA, placing it under “corrective action” for violating national standards for access to mental health services.

According to Kaiser, this is not the case. According to information published on the Kaiser website“Kaiser Permanente Hawaii performed well in its most recent formal NCQA accreditation survey (completed May 2022), and has achieved full 3-year NCQA accreditation status through May 11, 2025 for all applicable services.