About 100 Kaiser Permanente workers in Aurora picketed on Wednesday morning, joining more than 70,000 Kaiser employees striking across the country in the largest health care work stoppage in American history.

The strike — expected to last three days — signaled that Kaiser and the union have failed to reach an agreement. Kaiser’s contract with the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) expired Saturday.

Short of an agreement, union employees said they could walk off the job again.

Some 3,000 union members joined in the strike, representing roughly half of the 6,800 employees Kaiser in Colorado.

Among those on the picket line Wednesday was Elizabeth Dixon, who has worked for Kaiser for 25 years first as a transporter and then in imaging.

“They need to step up to the plate for us,” said Dixon, 52.

Dixon is not just an employee. She’s also a Kaiser Permanente patient. Diagnosed with T-cell lymphoma, Dixon forwent her treatment Wednesday to join the picket line.

Andrew Sorensen, a Kaiser spokesperson in Colorado, has said — without elaborating — that the health system would remain open during the strike.

“Both Kaiser Permanente management and Coalition union representatives are still at the bargaining table, having worked through the night in an effort to reach an agreement,” Sorensen said in statement. “There has been a lot of progress, with agreements reached on several specific proposals late Tuesday.”

Kaiser employees in Colorado have characterized the need for a strike over what they called “unfair labor practices” and a staffing crisis that union members have said has led to months-long waits and delayed care.

The sticking point in the negotiations appears to be pay.

The union originally asked for an across-the-board 7% increase, but have countered with a 6.5% proposal, according to the SEIU Local 105 website.

Kaiser offered a 3.5% increase for Colorado workers.

“We’re saying that’s not enough,” said Jeannetta McCain, a licensed practical nurse (LPN) who serves on the national bargaining team for the union.

McCain added: “A couple of years ago what I make now could be considered a lot of money, but now, with inflation, we’re living paycheck-to-paycheck.”

Sorensen said Kaiser pays above market and offered a $21 minimum wage for employees next year.

Many of the frontline workers on strike in Aurora earn less than $25 an hour.

Several of those on strike Wednesday have spent their career with Kaiser.

Not Allison Maez.

The 26-year-old followed in her mother’s footsteps and started as an LPN with the nonprofit organization on Monday in the oncology department at the Franklin Medical Offices in Denver.

“I know that Kaiser is a great company and I know what Kaiser is capable of,” Maez said.

‘It’s never happened’

With 75,000 workers in five states and Washington D.C. on the picket line Wednesday, this work stoppage has the distinction of being the largest in the nation, according to the U.S. Department of Labor.

The previous record was set in 2018 when 53,000 workers with the University of California Medical Centers in California had a two-day strike, federal data shows.

SEIU last authorized — but did not employ — a strike in 2019.

“This has been threatened a few times, but it’s never happened,” said Michelle Polizzo, a pharmacy technician for Kaiser.

In fact, Kaiser has reached agreements with the union the past 26 years without a labor strike.

In July, about 1,000 union members in Aurora protested what they described as “unsafe staffing” that has led to what they describe as a patient-care crisis.

McCain echoed these concerns again on Wednesday.

The staffing shortage, McCain said, means appointments can take months and test results — usually provided within days — can now take weeks.

The staffing crisis is not unique to Kaiser.

Over the next three years, Colorado is expected to face a shortage of 54,000 lower wage health care workers and more than 10,000 registered nurses.

In light of this, Kaiser has committed to hiring 10,000 union-represented jobs nationally. It is unknown — because officials have declined to say — how many will be Colorado positions.

Kaiser Permanente operates 30 medical offices along the Front Range, including three in Colorado Springs, that serve more than 500,000 patients annually.

The Denver Gazette reached out to a number of officials with advocacy organizations to better understand the effect of the strike on patients. These officials either did not respond or, as did the Colorado Consumer Health Initiative, declined to comment.

Neither State Sen. Rhonda Fields, chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, nor Rep. Lindsey Daugherty, chair of the Health and Insurance Committee, responded to emails seeking comment.

Colorado Division of Insurance has communicated with Kaiser about the organization’s contingency plans for the strike and is monitoring the strike’s impact on consumers, spokesperson Vincent Plymell said.