DENVER — Thousands of Kaiser Permanente's unionized workers are now on strike.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 105 announced Wednesday morning that union workers will strike.
More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers in multiple states -- about 3,000 in Colorado -- are striking to protest what the union is calling "unfair labor practices and unsafe staffing levels" at hundreds of Kaiser Permanente facilities across the United States.
Outside of Kaiser Permanente's Aurora Centrepoint Medical Offices Wednesday, shouts of "We want contracts!" echoed across the busy streets. Workers on strike held signs, shouted and cheered as they stood along the sidewalk.
In Denver, outside the Kaiser Permanente Franklin Medical Offices, union workers decked out in purple for SEIU Local 105 stood along the sidewalk, letting patients driving in and out of the area know about the strike.
"We're still here. We've been here since 6 this morning and we're still going," said Lupe Azuae, a patient transport worker at the Kaiser Permanente Franklin facility.
Azuae stood a few feet away from the Kaiser Permanente building she's worked at for the last 13 years.
"It's just been so frustrating because we're like - OK, we need help," Azuae said.
She's now on strike from a job she loves.
"Patients is our first priority and you know, they're family," she said.
Working in patient transport, Azuae said she's used to walking 15,000 steps a day to get patients where they need to go. It's a job she does alone.
"We need more staffing," Azuae said. "When I first started working here, there was two of us. The other coworker, she went to records and it's only me. I've been asking for help and they said they're not going to give me any help."
Burned out, she said, by a lack of staffing that started during the pandemic.
"And I was here when I was doing housekeeping, we were here cleaning, cleaning more than we were supposed to. And now it's like c'mon, we worked through the pandemic. And now, it's like what's going on? You forgot about us," she said.
After three years of stretching thin, she said she and her coworkers simply cannot continue like this any longer.
"And everybody's suffering, everybody's getting depressed, everybody's getting stressed out because we would like to do a little bit more and we can't," Azuae said.
She and members of SEIU Local 105, together with the coalition of Kaiser Permanente unions, are calling on the health care provider to improve staffing, improve long wait times for patients and pay workers more. Azuae said she's hopeful Kaiser Permanente gets the message through this strike.
"We're not doing it for fun," she said. "You know, we all have bills to pay and those three days, we're going to lose money because we're not getting paid. But we have to do that in order to work for a contract."
And she said they're prepared to picket until they get a deal.
"You can't lose hope, you can't lose the faith," Azuae said.
The strike is planned to last three days.
SEIU Local 105 representatives say that union workers can authorize a longer strike down the road, if necessary.
Negotiations continue to happen and Kaiser Permanente said in a statement "we’ve been making progress and hope to reach an agreement."
In the statement, Kaiser Permanente said they have reached some tentative agreements in bargaining with the unions that include across the board pay raises in all markets over the next four years. Kaiser Permanente said that also includes offering a minimum wage of $21 an hour in Colorado.
When it comes to addressing union concerns over staffing shortages, Kaiser Permanente said they've now hired 10,000 coalition-represented workers so far this year.
To help ensure patients can continue to receive care, Kaiser Permanente said they're onboarding contracted professionals that will serve in care roles during the strike. In the meantime, urgent care departments and medical offices will remain open during the three-day strike.
According to the company's website, a number of pharmacies as well as some medical imaging and laboratory departments will close during the strike. Many other locations will remain open. For a full list of where patients can go, visit the Kaiser Permanente website.
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