Kaiser Permanente is planning to lay off hundreds of workers across the Bay Area and beyond.
In an email to its union members on Friday, the SEIU-UHW said that it had been given a 60-day notice Thursday evening of the health care giant’s plan to eliminate the positions of 231 workers in its Northern California region. Kaiser, the union said, would be notifying those affected on Monday, including in the Bay Area.
In its note, the union called the move “an attack” on workers that comes after months of sacrifice during the coronavirus pandemic.
In a statement Friday, Kaiser acknowledged the layoffs, saying it was part of a reorganization to reduce duplication in primarily administrative and support positions.
The union urged it members not to panic, saying it planned to work with Kaiser to train and place those affected into a comparable job. In the coming week, the union said it would meet with Kaiser to try to negotiate alternatives to layoffs. It was in the process of reaching out to workers expected to be let go next week.
Georgette Bradford works for Kaiser in Sacramento as an ultrasound technologist and said Kaiser will often engage in talks with the union for weeks or months ahead of time, but “blindsided” them this time.
“The callousness of how Kaiser did this just blows my mind,” Bradford — who is not on the list to be let go — said, adding that workers are fatigued and stressed because of the pandemic. “After all of that, to think we’re finally going to be able to breathe, and then to be slapped in the face with something like this.”
More than a dozen workers at her medical center are set to face layoffs, Bradford said.
As with other health care providers, the pandemic dealt Kaiser a financial hit as elective surgeries and many other types of appointments ground to a halt in 2020. But the company still pulled in $6.4 billion in net income and finished the year with a 2.5% operating margin.
“Even our extraordinary sacrifice during this pandemic does not trump Kaiser’s focus on its bottom line,” the union said in its note.
Amid the layoffs, Kaiser said that it is continuing to grow.
“We continue to be one of the largest private employers in California with more than 149,000 employees and 16,000 physicians in the state,” the company said in its statement. “We continue to add jobs, with currently more than 2,300 open staff positions in the state.”
The positions set to be eliminated are primarily non-clinical positions, Kaiser said, adding that, “In any staff reorganization we are committed to—and highly successful at—working with employees to identify other positions within Kaiser Permanente to transition them into. And if we are unable to do so, we provide benefits to eligible employees that typically include education and training benefits, outplacement services, and up to a year of wages and benefits.”
It was not immediately clear where the affected workers are located.
The Oakland-based health system serves more than 12 million members. Kaiser is not alone in planning layoffs. Across the Bay Area, companies — including some in the tech sector and Target — have recently revealed layoffs.
“While these changes will represent a very small percentage of our workforce, we do not undertake them lightly and we always consider the support our valued colleagues will need as a result of these decisions,” Kaiser said. “We recognize the incredible contribution of all of our staff who have performed admirably especially throughout the past year and we are committed to providing comprehensive and personalized support.”
Staff Writer Julia Prodis Sulek contributed to this report.
