Mental health workers go on hunger strike, demanding better pay and benefits
Source: NPR
April 12, 2025 5:01 AM ET By Katia Riddle
In many ways, it was the usual protest scene. Dozens of striking mental health care workers chanted and marched Tuesday outside a Kaiser Permanente medical center on a busy strip of Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Passing cars honked in support. People vigorously waved homemade signs.
But a few of the striking workers sat quietly under a tent, conserving their energy and mixing electrolyte drinks – their only planned sustenance for five days.
Frustrated and feeling unable to get their voices heard after nearly six months of a strike to demand more pay and benefits, these eight therapists were taking their protest to the next level with a five-day hunger strike.
It's "an effort on our part to let them know that we are serious," said Aida Valdivia, a licensed marriage and family therapist, who is one of the hunger strikers.
Read more: https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/04/12/g-s1-59896/kaiser-permanente-therapists-hunger-strike