Roughly 31,000 Kaiser Permanente healthcare workers have walked off the job this week in California and Hawaii, protesting stalled contract negotiations and what they describe as unsafe staffing levels that put patients and employees at risk.

Their strike began at 7 a.m. Tuesday and will go until 7 a.m. on Sunday.

The workers on strike are members of the United Nurses Associations of California/Union of Health Care Professionals (UNAC/UHCP) . The union said that it has bargained in good faith with Kaiser since May to try to address dangerous staffing levels and stagnant pay, but Kaiser has failed to offer adequate solutions.

Kaiser said it has been working with the union for months to reach a fair deal and called the strike “unnecessary and disruptive.”

Inside the dispute

Kaiser

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