Walking out on Kaiser

Your afternoon must-read briefing on politics and government in the Golden State

Oct 04, 2023 View in browser   By Camille von Kaenel and Jeremy B. White LABOR EMERGENCY: A fight over staff levels at hospitals that’s simmered all summer has reached a boiling point. About 75,000 Kaiser Permanente staff walked off the job today in the largest-ever health care worker strike in the U.S. The three-day walkout at hospitals in California — as well as Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Virginia and Washington, D.C — includes licensed vocational nurses, X-ray techs and other staff but not doctors or registered nurses. Medical workers and supporters hold signs as they protest outside of a Kaiser Permanente facility in San Francisco, Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu) | AP Union leaders hope the strikes will give them an edge in negotiations over staff levels they say have led to burnout. They want a $25 minimum wage, and increases of 6.5 percent for the first two years of the contract and 5.75 percent for the last two years. Kaiser proposed an initial $23 minimum wage in California next year, along with annual raises of up to 4 percent per year. The same fight underpinned a landmark deal between unions and employers to pass a bill boosting health care workers’ wages to $25 an hour. Gov. Gavin Newsom has until Oct. 14 to sign or veto the legislation. His administration did not bless the pact in the Legislature, and has flagged the hefty price of boosting the minimum wage. A veto could inflame health care unions at a time when workers have been unusually active on the picket line. “The real impetus behind [the bill] was to help solve the health care staffing crisis,” SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West spokesperson Renee Saldana said Wednesday. “We hope it puts pressure on Kaiser executives and elected officials alike.” The Kaiser strike extends a stretch of labor strife that has tested Newsom’s relationship with some of California’s most influential political players. The Democratic governor recently vetoed a bill to extend unemployment insurance to striking workers, which unions championed late in the legislative session by pointing to Hollywood work stoppages. Newsom infuriated the Teamsters union by rejecting a bill that would have required a human safety driver on autonomous trucks for at least five years. Newsom hasn’t publicly commented on the Kaiser strike. IT’S WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON. This is California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check of California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to cvonkaenel@politico.com or send a shout on Twitter. DMs are open. WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY SAYING GOODBYE: Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was among thousands of mourners paying their respects today to the late Sen. Dianne Feinstein. The 90-year-old senator died last week and was lying in state in San Francisco City Hall a day before her memorial. The former speaker and her husband, Paul Pelosi, escorted the late senator’s daughter, retired Judge Katherine Feinstein, into the marble rotunda, where the casket was draped with an American flag. Thursday’s memorial service, which is expected to draw a who’s who of California’s political elite, will be held on the steps of City Hall, where Feinstein became mayor in 1978 following the assassination of Mayor George Moscone and Supervisor Harvey Milk. — Dustin Gardiner Rep. Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., puts her arm around the casket of Sen. Dianne Feinstein at City Hall on Wednesday, Oct. 4, 2023, in San Francisco, where Feinstein's casket was displayed. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez) | AP ON THE BEATS OUT SICK — California workers will have at least five days of paid sick leave starting next year, up from three, after Newsom signed an expansion of the state’s policy into law this afternoon. California was among the first states to make sick days mandatory in 2014, but it now trails 14 other states and Washington, D.C., in the amount of time offered. State Sen. Lena Gonzalez originally sought to boost the minimum to seven days, but pulled it back to five after business groups such as the California Chamber of Commerce mobilized against it. The Chamber put the proposal on its “job killer” list. “Every single working person and especially working parents know that three sick days are not enough,” said David Huerta, president of SEIU California. “No one wants workers to come to work sick, but that’s exactly what happens when workers face the prospect of losing a large part of their pay.” Similar proposals had previously failed four times amid business opposition. The change takes effect in January. — Eric He CASTE PROTEST: An activist fainted today as she marked 30 days of fasting to pressure Newsom into signing the first statewide ban on caste discrimination. Sana Qutubuddin, of the Indian American Muslim Council, was treated and released from urgent care, according to Thenmozhi Soundararajan, a fellow activist also taking part in the protest. Their fast is a reminder of one of the more divisive bills to emerge from this most recent session of the Legislature. California would be the first state to explicitly ban discrimination by caste, a system of inherited social hierarchy. Senate Bill 403 created divisions in the South Asian community, and opponents have also staged impassioned demonstrations at the Capitol. Many Hindus say the legislation is unnecessary and stigmatizes their religion. — Forest Hunt WHAT WE'RE FOLLOWING THAT’S RICH: Oracle CEO Larry Ellison is listed by Forbes as the Bay Area’s richest man, which seems a stretch because he mostly lives in Lanai these days and, besides his houses in Woodside and San Francisco, has homes in Malibu, Lake Tahoe, Newport, R.I., Japan and elsewhere. (The San Francisco Standard) AFFORDABLE HOUSING: A woman checked in to an ADU that was being rented as an AirBnB in the hills of Brentwood during the pandemic and has refused to leave 1½ years after her check-out date, demanding a $100,000 relocation fee from the homeowner. (Los Angeles Times)   Follow us on Twitter POLITICO California @politicoca   Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Ottawa Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters Follow us

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