Workers and community supporters to rally for better patient care
Local 5 Kaiser workers currently on strike will be joined by other Local 5 members and community supporters for a march through Waikiki and subsequent rally tomorrow.
Hundreds of community members and Local 5 members who work in the hotel and healthcare industry will be staging a march and rally in Waikiki on Thursday. An estimated 800 participants are expected.
Kaiser, Hawaii’s largest Health Maintenance Organization, is also a nonprofit. Yet, in the first three quarters of 2014, Kaiser Permanente reported net profits of $3.1 billion, adding to their $30 billion in cash reserves.
“I love my patients like family and want to give them the care they need and deserve. This community needs Kaiser to invest in people and workers like me, not just in new buildings and facility upgrades,” says Jonah Pascual, a medical assistant at Kaiser Permanente Honolulu.
Thursday’s community protest comes as nearly 1900 Local 5 Kaiser workers continue a week long strike that began on February 2nd. The last state-wide strike staged by Local 5 union workers at Kaiser took place in 1986.
Workers, including medical assistants, receptionists and housekeepers, are among the strong majority of workers who have been on strike protesting changes implemented by Kaiser that they say hurt patient care, such as closing urgent care clinics and laying off workers.
“As a single mom, good quality healthcare is really important to me,” says Lilibeth Herrell, a Sheraton Waikiki housekeeper, “Hawaii is my home, and in Hawaii we treat everyone with aloha. Yet Kaiser—a nonprofit—is acting like every other corporation that wants to take, take and take from us.”
“I’m a member of the AiKea Movement, and we stand for healthy communities that promote health as a basic human right,” says Dr. Christine Lipat, “I’m also a holistic chiropractor who is very much interested in wellness and in the big picture, that we need to organize together to take care of ourselves and each other for a healthy community.”
Local 5 represents nearly 1900 Kaiser Permanente workers on Oahu, Maui and Hawaii Island.
Local 5 represents approximately 10,500 workers throughout Hawaii who work in the hospitality, health care and food service industries and is an affiliate of UNITE HERE, an international union that represents over 250,000 workers throughout the U.S. and Canada.