The union representing 31,000 nurses and health care professionals at 200 Kaiser Permanente medical facilities in California and Hawaii is headed toward a five-day strike beginning at 7 a.m. Tuesday, Oct. 14, with tensions rising over a plan by the Oakland-based healthcare company to hire replacements.

Kaiser officials said the healthcare company is hiring up to 7,600 nurses, clinicians and other staff to replace union workers during the strike, the majority of whom have worked at Kaiser previously. More than 1,000 of Kaiser’s current workforce have volunteered to be reassigned to work in strike locations.

“We expect normal operations to resume afterward,” Kaiser spokesman Terry Kanakri said of the strike scheduled to end on Oct. 19. “For months, we’ve been preparing contingency plans

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