Hundreds of employees of Oakland, Calif.-based Kaiser Permanente rallied for a new contract with the health system, including job protections against AI, Hawaii News Now reported.
The workers marched and waved signs outside Kaiser Permanente Moanalua Medical Center in Honolulu as a union contract is being negotiated for more than 60,000 of the health system’s staffers around the country, according to the Aug. 16 story.
“We see overall healthcare is becoming a business, and they treat us as business,” Hawaii Nurses and Healthcare Professionals President Teri Carvalho Luke, RN, told the news outlet.
This isn’t the first time Kaiser Permanente employees have raised concerns about AI, which industry leaders say could supplant healthcare jobs in the future. Hundreds of nurses protested the technology in front of Kaiser’s San Francisco Medical Center in April 2024.
“We recognize that AI and new technologies influence how work is done, so we are committed to supporting our workforce as they learn and adopt more effective ways of working to deliver on our mission,” a Kaiser Permanente spokesperson told Becker’s. “AI automates tasks, not jobs, supporting employees and care providers by giving them more time to focus on caring for members and patients.”
