Kaiser employees will return to work at the Moanalua Medical Center Tuesday after a nearly month-long strike.
On Jan. 26, the United Nurses of California/Union of Health Care Professionals began an open-ended strike against Kaiser Permanente, citing complaints about unsafe working conditions and stagnating pay even as Kaiser reported billions of dollars in profits.
More than 31,000 workers joined the strike in order to force Kaiser back to the bargaining table after contract negotiations, ongoing since March 2025, broke down. Of those thousands of workers, some 250 were in Hawai‘i, picketing at Moanalua Medical Center.
On Monday, the unions announced that the strike is over. Union representatives stated that “significant movement at the bargaining table” led them to issue a notice to Kaiser that members will return to work on Tuesday.
“Returning members to their patients and their livelihoods is the clearest path to securing a final agreement and building on the progress achieved during the strike,” read a statement by the unions.
The unions called the strike “the largest open-ended strike of registered nurses and health care professionals in United States history.” The strike was, in fact, smaller than another strike against Kaiser by the same unions in October 2025 — wherein some 46,000 workers joined the picket — but that strike was set to only last one week.
Further details about the negotiations were not forthcoming Monday. However, the strike began almost immediately following the unions publishing a report detailing their grievances with Kaiser, including repeated cuts to wages, health and retirement benefits, and chronically understaffed facilities, which they predicted would further contribute to doctor shortages in Kaiser's coverage areas.
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