OAKLAND, Calif. – Despite recording a net income of $6.4 billion in 2020 and paying numerous executives million-dollar salaries, healthcare giant Kaiser Permanente announced on April 30 that it will eliminate more than 200 jobs at several facilities across California, leaving workers and their families devastated.

“Why is Kaiser doing this to the people they called health care heroes? They’ve worked for over a year through this grueling pandemic and now they’re losing their jobs,” said Ethan Ruskin, a health educator at Kaiser Permanente San Jose. “I know Kaiser executives with their million-dollar salaries don’t have to worry about putting food on the table for their families or paying rent, but my co-workers and I worry about these things every day. Shame on them for doing this to the healthcare workers who were on the frontlines of this pandemic.”

Workers are affected at facilities in the following cities: Oakland, San Francisco, Walnut Creek, Antioch, Roseville, Sacramento, San Jose, Santa Clara, Vallejo, Fresno, Modesto, Manteca, Redwood City, and Stockton.  Jobs affected by the layoffs include licensed vocational nurses, medical secretaries, patient care technicians, and staff assistants among other positions.

“We have been working frontline during the entire pandemic and many of us are the breadwinners for our families,” said Bethany Easiley, a department secretary at Kaiser Permanente Oakland. “Why would Kaiser do this to my co-workers during a pandemic?”

The layoffs come after Kaiser Permanente reported a net income of $6.4 billion in 2020. Kaiser Permanente is registered as a non-profit organization with the Internal Revenue Service, meaning it does not have to pay income taxes on its earnings or property taxes on its buildings throughout the United States.

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The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions (CKPU) unites more than 85,000 Kaiser Permanente employees in California, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Maryland, Virginia, and the District of Columbia. To learn more about the Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions, visit www.unioncoalition.org