Mental health workers, Kaiser Permanente reach tentative agreement to end strike

SAN FRANCISCO (CBS SF) – Kaiser Permanente and the National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) announced Tuesday that the two parties reached a tentative agreement, which would end a 10-week strike.

"The new 4-year agreement will benefit Kaiser Permanente patients and drive collaborative efforts aimed at improving access to mental health care, while at the same time recognizing and better supporting mental health therapists in their important work," the announcement read. 

The strike, which stretched from Northern California to Central Valley, began Aug. 15. Among their demands for Kaiser was a raise, and increased staffing and improved access to care for patients who sometimes must wait months for therapy appointments. The union also wanted  therapists to have more time to see returning patients and perform all of their patient care duties.

The details of the tentative agreement were not made available Tuesday. Almost 2,000 union members will vote over a two-day period on the agreement starting Tuesday evening.

Union workers overwhelmingly rejected the last offer made by Kaiser, which came during the seventh week of the strike. At the time, a Kaiser spokesperson said 60% of the company's therapists chose to work through the strike.

In:
• Strike
• Kaiser Permanente
• San Francisco