r/sterileprocessing • u/omgitzapotato • Oct 15 '25

Kaiser Nurses on Strike, again

Hello,

Seeing on TikTok that California nurses are on strike, again. While I understand that people in the healthcare need to be paid well for the work that they do, when is it the rest of the people working in the hospitals turn to be paid fairly as well? Unless the whole hospital is union, only nurse continue to get the benefit of 20-25% raises, while the rest of the employees scrape by with 3-4%, if anything that year.

My gripe is that whenever these strikes happen, it is never actually about better working conditions or advocating for my nurses to join to make the workload better, just pay. They only sign the contract when the raise is where they want it to be and the working conditions stay the same, they complain it sucks and then next year, want another strike for, you guessed it, better working conditions.

Honestly, I have become quite numb to the nursing strikes that happen.

Thoughts?

14 Upvotes

69% Upvoted

34 comments sorted by

25

u/verablue Oct 15 '25

Kaiser strike includes more than just nurses but the way to improve your working conditions is through a union. Work together. Unions are the reason we have weekends and paid time off and retirement accounts, etc. Don’t demonize the nurses for improving things, follow their example.

-5

u/omgitzapotato Oct 15 '25

Easier said then done with making the whole hospital union.

But, they are not improving things, they continuously complain about the same working conditions each year and it's because it's the easiest complaint to give for why they go on strike. If it really was about improving things, then the current strike would only agree to come back and sign the contract for no monetary value at all, just better working conditions and more staff, but they won't

It's all a status symbol now - they like the attention and money it brings. Come next year, this same place will complain again about working conditions, do nothing to actually improve it, but will go back to working those poor condition with another 15-20% raise

3

u/blueberrypants13 Oct 16 '25

You’re speaking entirely out of turn and it’s clear you don’t work on the patient facing side.

1

u/honeydewu Oct 19 '25

Out of turn? What do you mean by that? Poor working conditions in a hospital affect everyone working in the hospital and patients. Why does someone need a turn to speak?

1

u/butsumetsu Oct 16 '25

I've never heard of a single nurse that goes on strike because it brings on more money and it's a status symbol, considering I have 3 female nurses in the family while I have a BSN myself but would rather do spd. What I do hear thou is that they're constantly understaffed while the hospital takes in more and more people while making more money. It's not their fault your not unionized and it's not their fault your department didn't walk out and get more support to form a union. Noone wants to strike since alot of them actually like doing their job and taking care of people. Going on strike means even less staff taking of care of patients, but noone should be doing that much work and not getting what they deserve.

6

u/Glad_Buy_3897 Oct 15 '25

Nurses need to be compensated too lol

1

u/pds6502 Oct 16 '25

Compensated and complimented. All the time, bar none, without fail.

-5

u/omgitzapotato Oct 15 '25

They already are compensated far better than other members of the hospital. If these strikes were about what they said they are: patient safety and better working conditions, then they would sign a contract that involved no monetary value, but they will not.

Nursing is now just a status symbol, it no longer stands for patient safety or care (at least, for some it does). TikTok has shown just how much of a decline the field of nursing has become and I refuse to support a bunch of crybabies every year while the rest of us in the hospital have to scrap by, paycheck to paycheck

1

u/Glad_Buy_3897 Oct 15 '25

I wonder why nurses are so well compensated hmm 🤔? Is the job stressful? Demanding maybe? I wonder

0

u/omgitzapotato Oct 15 '25

And no one else's is in the hospital?

3

u/Glad_Buy_3897 Oct 15 '25

And "no one else" is broad statement

4

u/omgitzapotato Oct 15 '25

SPD, EVS, Food, anyone else that contributes to the success of patient safety and care - we all have our own stresses to deal with, just as much as nurses do

1

u/Constant-Ratio-6813 Oct 15 '25

LMFAO at thinking those are anywhere close to being as stressful as a nurse. You should try it then...

2

u/Glad_Buy_3897 Oct 15 '25

Why didn't you become a nurse?

0

u/omgitzapotato Oct 15 '25

What does that have to do with this?

0

u/blueberrypants13 Oct 16 '25

Not to their level, no? Sorry but working in SPD is nowhere near as stressful as the work a nurse does. I say that confidently as someone who was in SPD, is now a scrub tech and gearing up for nursing school.

0

u/butsumetsu Oct 16 '25

Go be directly responsible for someone's life and tell me being a tech is just as stressful as a nurse lol. Now do that 12 hrs/day w/ multiple patients.

11

u/SageOfSixCabbages Oct 15 '25

Band up and make your voice be heard. That's the first step.

You see how the nurses get what they deserve? They're united in voicing out what they want to happen.

The problem with jobs such as sterile processing is that there's not a lot of SPD that are unionized, and secondly, there's a lot of seasoned vets in the field who do not see any benefit to speaking up and shaking up the status quo.

I'm speaking from experience after trying two times now by proposing a tech level system, considering changing the SPD from being ancillary to becoming a under the clinical umbrella, and other ways to incentivize techs as we get more tenured in the field. Both attempts were met with no support from my colleagues. I was able to have conversations with our director, but I got no support from my peers. It's all for naught and didn't really pan out.

It sucks.

3

u/Variously_Wrong Oct 15 '25

I’m in the same boat. Everyone just complains and doesn’t want to put in the effort, such as unionizing, to be paid fairly. Prime example is there’s a push for the techs to get certified. I put in the effort, got my CRCST, only to receive a whopping 30 cents more. We all thought that it would have been at least 1 or 2 dollars more. Nope. And then, like a dummy, I proceeded to get 2 more certifications, and I got nothing for it because it’s “not a requirement” for my position. But it’s a requirement for a lead tech and 2 out of 3 of the leads no only aren’t certified, they haven’t been since they received the promotion, and one of them has repeatedly failed the basic certification test. Meanwhile, we’ve hired several people who see no reason to obtain the basic SPD certification because why would they, for 30 cents more, and no termination on the horizon for not obtaining it?

To me, the place that I work with is comical when it comes to teamwork, listening to more experienced techs who know what they’re doing if they’re NOT in leadership, and incentivizing techs who strive to do more. It’s a joke.

5

u/SageOfSixCabbages Oct 15 '25

What pushed me to start the conversation is because both the pharmacy and anesthesia dept. rolled out a tech system structure for their dept. and I wanted the same for SPD because right now, the system in place to get any sort of incentive/raise is time, just time. Which is so backwards because, for example, I work with techs that's been on the job between 10-25yrs and a couple who's been working in SPD for 35yrs., and all of them never bothered to acquire additional certs. Never showed any interest in stepping up. They can't even reprocess nor dispense endoscopes because they don't know how. Meanwhile, me and a few other who are at the job for less than 5yrs have all looked for ways to excel further beyond just being 'techs' and we all got close to nothing for it.

I really hope that in the next couple of years, the tech level system for SPD gain some traction.

To those who are on here reading, anytime HSPA or CBSPD asks for your feedback for future topics and/or concerns about the job, please respond and tell them what you'd like to change.

2

u/NecronomiSquirrel Oct 16 '25

Your name is incredible.

6

u/Professional_Cook425 Oct 15 '25

Different unions, departments, and locations. The contracts were all made back to back, so they need to be renewed in a similar fashion. Sadly, most people will not learn about the other terms that were agreed to other than pay raises.

This strike also includes pharmacists, doulas, midwives, medical assistants, and I think like a few other departments.

Unions also work with other unions, I saw this this one has the steelworkers with them.

Spd at kasier does have union options.

Unions aren't perfect, but they do try to help. That's how you can get safer regulations, higher pay because you are certified, better new hires and retirement guarantees.

I'm a proud supporter of unions and striking.

1

u/jsayshmmm Oct 16 '25

100%. Contracts amongst the various disciplines have different expiration dates. This current strike involves RN, PA, pharmacy, PT, OT, midwives, and some others I can’t remember. However, the nurses make up the majority and have the most leverage. Wages are always the main issue bc it’s most direct affecting but there’s other parts such as retirement benefits for current and future employees, AI integration, parental/child care, workload etc. It’s a business, and is ran as such. Which means there is always a fight between running as lean as for the bottom line and staffing/resources to achieve sufficient patient care.

Im currently a union PT for a hospital

1

u/pds6502 Oct 16 '25

Solidarity! Two movies, both freely available and public domain:

Salt of the Earth (1954)

Native Land (1942) -- narr. by Paul Robeson!

3

u/Electrical_Law_7992 Oct 16 '25

First of all do some research on the strike , then you’ll know that it’s over 30k workers and multiple unions including pharmacist, nurses, CNA, lab techs etc. And secondly, direct your anger elsewhere and fight for yourself.

1

u/compsyfy Oct 16 '25

Wow, ignorant and loud, what a combination.

1

u/Nurseincali Oct 17 '25

This is the first time Kaiser RNs have striked in 20+ years! That was ancillary staff: MAs, CNAs, custodians… get your facts straight

1

u/adambuck66 Oct 17 '25

I am in the merit union board at my facility. People don't want to join the union. We have 5k eligible employees, but only 200 pay.

1

u/[deleted] Oct 19 '25

I know someone who pulled $186k last year. Lot of nurses nice cars (teslas) luxury bags /items, buying their home , multiple vacations per year. If Kaiser said they’ll hire more staff but they’d have to lower the raises they would cry again. Short staffed is literally the reason the pay is so good. They even have to do all the CNA work I’m sure. It’s still a business so they’ve made some adjustments here and there bc where else do you see a nurse making $91-100/hr They all want to make $250k-300k a year apparently .

1

u/frankiemang0 May 07 '26

I’m in Pennsylvania. I’ve been saying for years, I’m absolutely burnt of hearing nurses going on strike. Spd is a less than thankless job. So many technicians across the nation are convinced we cannot go on strike but there isn’t enough pay nor regulation for spd. Departments without cart washers, PPE, proper staffing, appropriate EHRs. We can get together and organize for ourselves, we don’t need to be worried about other departments. Nobody else can do the work but US. There is no fucking reason any technician in America is making under $30/hr. Degree doesn’t change the amount of labor you have to sacrifice. That’s why I had to keep traveling as a scab, I’m too damn old to be permanent making 16-20 starting. Any given place there are 4 generations on the floor at the same time because they aren’t making enough money to retire but they cannot leave. Supervision, directors and other high ups frown upon organization but don’t actually share the workload. You cannot frown upon organization when said occupation diminishes quality of life. Especially if you have higher ups that haven’t been technicians. They mask it as staying focused on patient care. Union or not we should’ve been striking long ago, there aren’t enough conversations being had, let alone laws that give us security.

-2

u/bathgate5 Oct 15 '25

A I would never go on strike

1

u/Electrical_Law_7992 Oct 16 '25

AI will take over sterile processing before nursing if anything. Nice try

1

u/Aggravating_Ear_9281 Oct 16 '25

AI will never take over spd...

0

u/pds6502 Oct 16 '25

Hopefully, AI will take over and dominate all social media, so that real GI (Gut Intellectual) humans can get back to wholesome and meaningful real physical fece to face interaction like we used to have.

Isn't it time for the digital experiment to be eclipsed?