This morning Kaiser Permanente workers across Oregon and Southwest Washington have launched a strike authorization vote for what could be the largest labor action of 2025. These workers are members of the Oregon Federation of Nurses and Health Professionals (OFNHP, AFT 5017, AFL-CIO) who are bargaining with Kaiser alongside the 60,000 members of the Alliance of Healthcare Unions. The Alliance is currently bargaining over issues such as wages, working conditions, and the future of care. Despite making some progress, workers say that Kaiser’s corporate leadership still refuses to agree to common sense proposals that would ensure a fair union contract.
“We are committed to exhausting every option before we call a strike,” said Sarina Roher, President of OFNHP. “However, if management continues to deny real solutions, then a strike becomes not our choice, but our responsibility — to protect our members and the patients we serve.”
Once a strike authorization is voted on by members, bargaining team leadership could call for a strike to occur any time after contract expiration, September 30th, 2025. A strike would involve OFNHP’s Registered Nurses, Professionals, and Lab Professionals walking out at Kaiser Westside Medical Center, Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center, and clinics and facilities across Oregon and Southwest Washington. A walkout here has the potential to coincide with a strike involving Kaiser workers and Alliance members across eight states.
OFNHP came within hours of striking Kaiser during the 2021 negotiations in which Kaiser attempted to implement a two-tiered pay system that would have eroded standards and accelerated the staffing crisis. The union led the 2021 strike at St. Charles in Bend and the 2023 strike at PeaceHealth Southwest and St. John, all of which resulted in settling fair union contracts.