Nearly 500 Kaiser Permanente Hawaii Workers Stop Work in Protest
Kaiser medical assistants stand up for better patient care!
Kaiser Permanente Hawaii workers organized a one-day work stoppage on November 21, 2013 to protest a variety of initiatives that the state’s largest health care maintenance organization (HMO) is implementing that prevent workers from providing quality care to its patients.
Nearly 500 workers from clinics all over Oahu stopped work to support good patient care. They demand that Kaiser ensures that workers are able to do their jobs properly by issuing fair workloads, providing adequate staffing, hiring more staff to allow workers to take vacations, and respecting workers. Workers in Maui also protested in front of the Wailuku clinic.
“Working with patients and keeping them healthy is my pride and joy. I want to provide nothing but the best care for my patients,” says Cindy Aban, a medical assistant who has worked at Kaiser Permanente Honolulu since 2005, “But Kaiser isn’t hiring enough staff for us to be able to provide the very best, personalized care for our patients.”
Workers are asking patients to stand with them in support of better patient care by demanding that Kaiser take care of its workers so that the workers can care for their patients. Anyone can go online to sign it: unitehere5.org/patientpetition.
For more photos from the stop work and take action (SWATA) day, please visit our Facebook page.
