Your Evening Briefing: Healthcare Giant’s Workers Go on Strike

More than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente workers began striking Wednesday morning in the largest US healthcare walkout in history. The three-day action could stall services for almost 13 million people in at least half a dozen states and is expected to shut down nonessential services. Kaiser Permanente is one of America’s largest health-care providers, operating 39 hospitals nationwide. The strike further expands a months-long series of labor demonstrations across the US, most recently in Hollywood and most famously among auto workers. The issues at the heart of this latest strike are pay and staffing, with the union arguing there are not enough workers to handle patient care. Since the pandemic, the number of healthcare vacancies has soared as burned out workers quit.

The race to be the next Speaker of the US House of Representatives began in earnest Wednesday after far-right Republicans ousted Kevin McCarthy. Second-ranking House Republican leader Steve Scalise said he would run for the post, making him a leading contender as the GOP searches for a replacement. He joins far-right Ohio Representative Jim Jordan, who chairs one of three committees behind the controversial impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden. The chaos in the perpetually dysfunctional House has raised the specter of a potential government shutdown in November.