HONOLULU (HawaiiNewsNow) - Contract agreements are about to expire for 62,000 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers around the United States, including 1,900 workers in Hawaii.

Hundreds of those workers waved signs and rallied outside Kaiser Permanente’s Moanalua medical center to call for higher wages and safer staffing.

“As we fight to make sure that we raise our wages, that we put our patients first, I can guarantee you that we will win! We will win,” Cade Watanabe, UNITE HERE Local 5 Financial Secretary/Treasurer, told the gathering.

Nationwide, contracts between Kaiser and the Alliance of Healthcare Unions will expire at the end of September. Local bargaining began in April and national bargaining began in May.

Workers say they’re making up to 30% less than their counterparts on th

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