As the school season approaches, union healthcare workers face a painful dilemma: how to ensure safe care of our children, knowing our patients need our care too.
This is a situation no one should have to face – especially not healthcare workers in the face of the pandemic. This is why Kaiser Permanente agreed to provide childcare grants to workers last spring. As the school season approaches, the Alliance is calling on KP to resume the grants.
Continued patchwork government policies mean schools in various districts may be providing instruction in person, online, or some hybrid of the two. Childcare grants secure care for school-age children or dependent disabled adult children while eligible workers continue to work. Anyone who has desperately asked family or friends to take care of their loved ones so they can go to work knows what a huge relief this type of benefit provides. Kaiser Permanente provided childcare grants as part of an employee COVID-19 benefit package in April. Unfortunately, they expired in June.
As we face a heartbreaking and stressful surge of COVID cases, we must continue to protect and support those who take care of us. We are calling on Kaiser Permanente to restore the COVID childcare benefit. The stability of patient care and our collective health depends on it.
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