Mental health therapists at Kaiser Permanente in Hawai’i ratify contract ending 172-day strike

NewsFebruary 27, 2023

NUHW-represented mental health clinicians in Hawai’i ratified a three-year contract on February 19 that ended the longest mental health strike in U.S. history. For 172 days, the approximately 50 psychologists, social workers, nurses and chemical dependency counselors withheld their labor to demand that Kaiser Permanente treat them fairly and provide care that meets the needs of their patients.

When the strike began on August 26, Kaiser was insisting on eliminating pensions for new hires and freezing wages for most clinicians. The settlement, which was approved with 95 percent support, preserved pensions and included guaranteed raises without which Kaiser stood to lose even more clinicians in Hawai’i, resulting in even longer appointment wait times for patients.

Key contract provisions include:

Wage increases of at least 3 percent in 2023 and 2024 and 2 percent in 2025. Some workers will see bigger raises based on the new wage scale.
An extra $1.50 per hour for bilingual therapists to help Kaiser meet the needs of non-English speakers.
Preserving pension benefits for new hires.

“This contract is a lot better than what Kaiser was offering when we started our strike last August, but it’s still not enough to address the understaffing crisis that forces Kaiser members to wait months for mental health therapy,” said Andrea Kumura, a social worker at Kaiser’s Waipio Clinic and member of the NUHW Bargaining Committee. “I’m proud that we took a stand for patients, and I’m ready to keep fighting to make Kaiser deliver mental health care that meets the needs of its members.”

The mental health clinicians in Hawai’i joined NUHW in 2018 and had to push Kaiser to the limit to secure their first contract. Through their work and documentation of patients waiting months for therapy sessions, Kaiser has been placed under Corrective Action in Hawai’i by its accreditation agency, and the state’s largest health care purchaser took the unprecedented step during the strike of allowing any member with Kaiser insurance to switch plans if they couldn’t access timely mental health care.

However, there is much work still to be done in Hawai’i, where Kaiser has about 40 full-time-equivalent therapists serving its 266,000 members. The wage rates that Kaiser agreed to pay in Hawaii are still lower than in California, which will make it harder for Kaiser to adequately address its understaffing crisis by increasing its mental health workforce to benchmarks required under its Corrective Action Plan in Hawai’i. Additionally, Kaiser did not agree to provisions aimed at improving access to care in Hawaii as it did in the contract NUHW settled after a 10-week strike last year in Northern California.

While the contract doesn’t include everything NUHW members fought to achieve, it’s an important first step in addressing understaffing and improving access to care. NUHW is building a growing coalition of legislative leaders and mental health advocates in Hawaii that can pass patient protection laws similar to what we have on the books in California.

“I’m excited to return to work and treat my patients, but I’m disappointed that Kaiser still devalues mental health care and treats its patients in Hawai’i as second class,” said Rachel Kaya, a psychologist for Kaiser on Maui. “I’m so grateful for our community that has supported our strike and kept us going all these months by contributing to our strike fund. Our strike is over, but our fight to make Kaiser deliver timely, accessible mental health care for the people of Hawai’i is only just beginning.”