Portland Kaiser Workers Picketing for Safer Conditions

FILE PHOTO:Workers Picketing at Kaiser Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro, OR.

Local Kaiser Employees began to picket this week to encourage safer staffing and better wages for workers on the front line.

The specific employees are from Kaiser Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro, Kaiser Sunnyside in Clackamas, and Kaiser Interstate in Portland who are joining Kaiser employees nationwide to fight for better conditions overall.

According to the labor union SEIU Local 49, the informational picketing is scheduled ahead of the employee contracts expiring at the end of September. Local Kaiser employees and the union say the informational picketing is vital because the employees are considered underpaid when it comes to the cost of living in the Portland Metro Area.

Picketing was at Kaiser Westside Medical Center on Monday, July 24th and continues at Kaiser Interstate Medical Center in Portland, Wednesday, July 26 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m., and Kaiser Sunnyside Medical Center in Clackamas, Friday, July 28 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 6 p.m.