Support Kaiser Social Workers

[Ahmanise Sanati]

Hello Region H, 

As you may know, Kaiser social workers in Northern California have been on strike. Here is a link to NASW-CA's statement of support:

Support Kaiser Social Workers’ Longest Mental Health Strike · NASWCANEWS.ORG

One of our members kindly reached out to give us resources to support our fellow colleagues on strike (shared by their union). Please consider reading through and finding a way to support them. As you read through, you will see that their issues are NOT unique and many of us in mental health can relate. I also ask you to remember that we are all connected, and one organization's changes can affect another's. Thus, if they see change, we can use that to leverage OTHER organizations to make change. Advocacy really WORKS, and there is power in numbers!

In solidarity, 

Ahmanise

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Our colleagues in IBHS in Northern California are embarking on the fifth week of their open-ended strike. Our colleagues in HI will be on the third week of their open-ended strike. They are standing strong because the stakes are so high - we are going to fundamentally change all of our relationship with Kaiser management so that Kaiser treats behavioral health care on equal footing with its other services. Bargaining with the boss will resume this week, but let's make sure we're doing everything we can to help our sister units up north and out west succeed! What their victory means practically in terms of our day to day lives at work:

- Additional staff to meet the needs of our patients and follow ethical standards and parity laws

- Adequate time to care for our patients outside of direct face to face time

- Wages and benefits that are equal to what our colleagues on the medical side have - annual wage increases that take into account inflation and cost of living, maintenance of pension and retiree health benefits

What more can we do to help?

If you haven't already, reach out to all your members, let them know what's going on, and ask them about the actions below. Reach out to your organizer for a list of your members and their personal contact info if needed.

We will be scheduling membership meetings by service area to talk about the strike starting this week, ideally including IBHS and HI members. Your rep will reach out to help with scheduling!

In addition to the emails we have already sent out, this week we will be sending general text blasts with information on how members can help support the strike.

Asks:

1) Donate one day’s pay to strike fund that will be disbursed to local hardship funds in NorCal and HI: https://nuhw.org/kaiserstrikefund/

2) Share the strike fund, petition, and NUHW social media posts with your networks

3) Call, Fax or Email Governor Newsom in that order for maximum attention from his office: phone (916) 445-2841, fax (916) 558-3160, email  https://govapps.gov.ca.gov/gov40mail/, gove...@governor.ca.gov

Sample Message: “I am calling/emailing to ask the Governor to ACT NOW to help resolve the Kaiser mental health care strike. Kaiser has been breaking mental health access laws with impunity for years – and things have got infinitely worse since therapists began their strike two weeks ago. Kaiser would never be allowed to cancel thousands of dialysis appointments or surgeries during a strike. It shouldn't be allowed to do the equivalent for mental health care. People's lives are at stake — act now!"

4) Sign support petition: https://nuhw.org/kaiser-dont-deny/kaiser-strike/

5) Social Media! Share, like and comment our posts about the strike on:

Twitter
LinkedIn
Facebook
Instagram
TikTok