Tens of thousands of Kaiser Permanente health care workers in California and Hawaii plan to strike Tuesday over pay, staffing levels and other contract issues.

Officials with the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals say 31,000 union members at more than 500 hospitals and clinics will walk off the job until Sunday morning in what they call the largest labor action in the union’s 50-year history.

UNAC/UHCP is a member of the Alliance of Health Care Unions, and if other affiliated unions join the strike, up to 46,000 Kaiser employees could ultimately take to the picket lines, according to union officials.

“Workers are going on strike after Kaiser executives have refused for months of negotiations to settle a fair contract that includes safe staffing,

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