Kaiser Mental Health Workers Hit Picket Lines Across Southern California

Striking Kaiser Permanente workers hold signs as they march in front of the Kaiser Permanente Vallejo Medical Center in Vallejo, Calif., on Oct. 6, 2023. Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

LOS ANGELES—Nearly 2,400 mental health workers at Kaiser Permanente facilities went on strike Monday amid contract talks and allegations of a “broken” system of care, while Kaiser officials say the union has been “slow walking” the negotiation process and planned to strike before labor talks even began.

“This is about equity for mental health care,” Jessica Rentz, a Kaiser therapist in Fontana, said in a statement released by the National Union of Healthcare Workers. “We want to be with our patients, not on a picket line, but we can’t keep working in a system that treats mental health care like an assembly line job and denies us the time and resources to provide the care we know our patients need.”