The coalition of unions representing Kaiser Permanente health care workers announced Friday morning that it reached a tentative agreement with the company.
The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions announced they had tentatively reached an agreement via a social media post on Friday.
“The frontline healthcare workers of the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions are excited to have reached a tentative agreement with Kaiser Permanente as of this morning,” the group wrote on Facebook.
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The announcement added, “We are thankful for the instrumental support of Acting US Labor Secretary Julie Su.”
The health care workers’ unions have called for increased staffing levels at Kaiser Permanente hospitals, saying the facilities are in the midst of a “short-staffing crisis” that is unsafe and could lead to patients facing dangerously long wait times, mistaken diagnoses and neglect.
The unions also accused the hospital conglomerate of maintaining unfair labor practices.
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Strikes began with a three-day walk-out last week — since then, coalition officials have been meeting with company representatives for negotiations.
Leaders are calling it the largest health care workers strike in US history.
Kaiser has said there is an acute shortage of health care workers nationwide, but despite that challenge, it has been able to hire more than 50,000 frontline workers in the last two years.
The company said it reached a goal with the union alliance in April to hire 10,000 new people for coalition-represented jobs, and it expects to reach that target by the end of this month.
The full terms of the agreement have not yet been released.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates. Fox Business’s Breck Dumas contributed to this report.
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