November, 12 2021, 01:02pm EDT
Sanders and Seven Colleagues Stand in Solidarity with More Than 30,000 Health Care Workers Ahead of Strike
WASHINGTON
Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) Friday, along with seven of his Senate colleagues, sent a letter to Kaiser Permanente Chair and CEO Greg Adams in support of the more than 30,000 nurses and health care workers planning to strike unless negotiations for a fair contract improve. The strike is set to take place November 15 with workers at health care facilities in California, Colorado, Washington D.C., Georgia, Hawaii, Maryland, Oregon, Virginia, and Washington.
"These workers have been on the frontlines in our fight against COVID-19," wrote the senators. "They risked their lives to save patients - showing up to work despite not being provided basic protective equipment. We've been told that some were even forced to sleep in their cars and hotels to protect their families. These employees are heroes and heroines and should be treated as such. Sadly, you have taken another approach."
Sanders and his colleagues, Sens. Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), and Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), urgently reminded Adams that this strike comes after Kaiser health care workers and their families have been on the frontlines of this terrible pandemic - putting themselves and their loved ones at risk, working longer hours and in worse conditions - all while the company and its leadership raked in record corporate profits.
The senators wrote, "Mr. Adams: During the peak of the global pandemic, in 2020, your company made $2.2 billion in operating profits. Let's be clear. Those company profits did not occur by accident. They occurred because your employees were on the job, working tirelessly in the midst of a life- threatening pandemic. Now, at a time when Kaiser is sitting on $44.5 billion in cash reserves and your insured membership has grown to 12.5 million, the company wishes to diminish the safety, security, and wellbeing of its workers, rather than improve them. That's just not right. Your employees deserve better."
The Kaiser strike comes amidst a wave of worker protests across industries and states, including at least 185 strikes at 255 locations this year. Sanders also recently led a letter of support, along with six of his Senate colleagues, for the Kellogg workers striking in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Nebraska, and Tennessee.
Read the full Kaiser letter here.
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The United Nations children's agency on Saturday condemned the Israel Defense Forces' "indiscriminate strikes on civilians in the Gaza Strip" after at least 50 children were reportedly among those killed in attacks on Jabalia refugee camp in the northern part of the enclave.
Northern Gaza has been under siege since early October, when Israel resumed its attacks there, claiming it was targeting Hamas militants.
The current situation in northern Gaza has been called "apocalyptic" by leading humanitarian groups in recent days, with women and children making up the majority of the hundreds of people killed, and Israel imposing a near-total blockade on humanitarian aid.
Now, said Catherine Russell, executive director of the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF), "the entire Palestinian population in North Gaza, especially children, is at imminent risk of dying from disease, famine, and the ongoing bombardments."
In addition to the attacks on residential buildings this weekend in Jabalia, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that an attack on a healthcare center in Gaza City injured at least six people, including four children. The facility was participating in a polio vaccination drive, the second round of inoculations for children across Gaza.
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Russell said the vehicle of a UNICEF staffer who was working on the vaccination campaign was attacked by "what we believe to be a quadcopter while driving through Jabalia—Elnazla."
The staff member was not injured, but Russell said "the attacks on Jabalia, the vaccination clinic, and the UNICEF staff member are yet further examples of the grave consequences of the indiscriminate strikes on civilians in the Gaza Strip."
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