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Kaiser Mental Health Therapists Strike for Racial Justice on MLK Day

“People of color don’t stop being people of color when negotiations are done,” said Jessica Dominguez, the founder and lead clinician at Kaiser Permanente’s La Clínica. “Racism within the Kaiser system does not end when we ratify a contract. These issues are deeply embedded in this system and will not simply go away. And it is not enough to denounce racism. We must be anti-racist… We will not give up and we will not give in because mental health is a social justice issue.”

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Striking Kaiser workers march for racial justice. Photo courtesy of the National Union of Healthcare Workers web site.
Striking Kaiser workers march for racial justice. Photo courtesy of the National Union of Healthcare Workers web site.

By Matthew Artz

Refusing to let Kaiser pay lip service to racial justice while failing to provide culturally responsive health care for communities of color, mental health clinicians at Kaiser Permanente’s Richmond and Oakland offices held a one-day strike on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

Nearly 100 psychologists, social workers, addiction counselors and marriage and family therapists picketed outside Kaiser’s Oakland Medical Center at 3600 Broadway and marched through Downtown Oakland, chanting “Therapist! Power!” on their way to a rally outside Kaiser’s corporate headquarters in the Ordway Building at 1 Kaiser Plaza.

“This is my ‘bus boycott.’ This is my ‘sitting at the lunch counter’… This is what MLK would have done,” Sabrina Chaumette, a social worker, who is one of only five Black clinicians on Kaiser’s adult team in Oakland, told colleagues and allies during the rally.

Speaking on the picket line, Assemblymember Mia Bonta, D-Alameda, told the striking clinicians, “When you have people and workers here who want the dignity of celebrating the most sacred and important day in our country… I say, ‘be anti-racist, Kaiser.’”

Clinicians in Oakland and Richmond voted nearly unanimously to strike after Kaiser executives broke their promise to make Martin Luther King Jr. Day a paid holiday in 2022.

In response, Kaiser CEO Greg Adams announced that Kaiser will treat the King holiday as a paid holiday for all Kaiser employees in 2023, but Kaiser executives have still refused to work with clinicians to address structural racism within the HMO, which has resulted in the departure of clinicians of color, further depriving patients of culturally competent care.

Kaiser has rejected proposals aimed at improving recruitment of therapists of color and bilingual therapists, as well as addressing structural racism within the organization.

“Kaiser pays a lot of lip service to racial justice, but when it comes to taking action, it’s always ‘wait till next year,’” said Chaumette, whose schedule is so overbooked that new patients must wait four months for an appointment. “If Kaiser can’t even keep its promise about honoring Martin Luther King Jr. Day this year, how can we trust that it will ever take action to address structural racism in its ranks?”

Besides Bonta, participating elected officials included Alameda County Supervisor Nate Miley and Oakland City Council members Sheng Thao, Nikki Fortunato-Bas and Dan Kalb.

According to a 2019 report from the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Black adults in the U.S are significantly more likely than their white counterparts to report persistent symptoms of emotional distress, such as sadness, hopelessness and feeling like everything is an effort. Despite the need for mental health care, the same report found only one in three Black adults receives it.

At Kaiser, a recent survey of more than 1,500 Kaiser employees represented by the National Union of Healthcare Workers found that 62% of non-white workers reported experiencing racism on the job and 37% of all workers surveyed reported witnessing racism toward their patients.

Additionally, 41% of all respondents reported having patients who struggled to access or maintain treatment because they could not be seen by a culturally competent provider.

“We are living in a time of reckoning, a time when people of color are no longer content with the status quo,” said Jessica Dominguez, the founder and lead clinician at Kaiser Permanente’s La Clínica. “Because (the) status quo has never included people of color. Status quo is white supremacy.”

In response to claims from Kaiser that the clinicians were “weaponizing” the King holiday because they’re bargaining for a new contract, Dominguez said that “structural racism is baked into the Kaiser system.

“People of color don’t stop being people of color when negotiations are done,” Dominguez said. “Racism within the Kaiser system does not end when we ratify a contract. These issues are deeply embedded in this system and will not simply go away. And it is not enough to denounce racism. We must be anti-racist… We will not give up and we will not give in because mental health is a social justice issue.”

Matthew Artz works for the National Union of Healthcare Workers, a member-led movement representing 15,000 healthcare workers, including more than 4,000 Kaiser mental health clinicians in California and Hawaii.

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Activism

Oakland Hosts Town Hall Addressing Lead Hazards in City Housing

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

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iStock.
iStock.

By Magaly Muñoz

The City of Oakland’s Housing and Community Development Department hosted a town hall in the Fruitvale to discuss the efforts being undertaken to remove lead primarily found in housing in East and West Oakland.

In 2021, the city was awarded $14 million out of a $24 million legal settlement from a lawsuit against paint distributors for selling lead-based paint that has affected hundreds of families in Oakland and Alameda County. The funding is intended to be used for lead poisoning reduction and prevention services in paint only, not water or other sources as has been found recently in schools across the city.

The settlement can be used for developing or enhancing programs that abate lead-based paint, providing services to individuals, particularly exposed children, educating the public about hazards caused by lead paint, and covering attorney’s fees incurred in pursuing litigation.

According to the city, there are 22,000 households in need of services for lead issues, most in predominantly low-income or Black and Latino neighborhoods, but only 550 to 600 homes are addressed every year. The city is hoping to use part of the multimillion-dollar settlement to increase the number of households served each year.

Most of the homes affected were built prior to 1978, and 12,000 of these homes are considered to be at high risk for lead poisoning.

City councilmember Noel Gallo, who represents a few of the lead-affected Census tracts, said the majority of the poisoned kids and families are coming directly from neighborhoods like the Fruitvale.

“When you look at the [kids being admitted] at the children’s hospital, they’re coming from this community,” Gallo said at the town hall.

In order to eventually rid the highest impacted homes of lead poisoning, the city intends to create programs and activities such as lead-based paint inspections and assessments, full abatement designed to permanently eliminate lead-based paint, or partial abatement for repairs, painting, and specialized cleaning meant for temporary reduction of hazards.

In feedback for what the city could implement in their programming, residents in attendance of the event said they want more accessibility to resources, like blood testing, and information from officials about lead poisoning symptoms, hotlines for assistance, and updates on the reduction of lead in their communities.

Attendees also asked how they’d know where they are on the prioritization list and what would be done to address lead in the water found at several school sites in Oakland last year.

City staff said there will be a follow-up event to gather more community input for programming in August, with finalizations happening in the fall and a pilot launch in early 2026.

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Activism

BOOK REVIEW: The Afterlife of Malcolm X

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen on that night? Surely. He was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

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Book Cover of the Afterlife of Malcolm X. Courtesy of Simon & Schuster.
Book Cover of the Afterlife of Malcolm X. Courtesy of Simon & Schuster.

By Terri Schlichenmeyer

Author: by Mark Whitaker, c.2025, Simon & Schuster, $30.99, 448 pages

Who will remember you in fifty years’ time?

A handful of friends – at least those who are still around – might recall you. Your offspring, grandkids, and greats, maybe people who stumble upon your tombstone. Think about it: who will remember you in 2075? And then read “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” by Mark Whitaker and learn about a legacy that still resonates a half-century later.

Betty Shabazz didn’t like to go to her husband’s speeches, but on that February night in 1965, he asked her to come with their daughters to the Audubon Ballroom in New York. Did Malcolm X sense that something bad would happen on that night? Surely. He was fully aware of the possibility, knowing that he’d been “a marked man” for months because of his very public break with the Nation of Islam.

As the news of his murder spread around New York and around the world, his followers and admirers reacted in many ways. His friend, journalist Peter Goldman, was “hardly shocked” because he also knew that Malcolm’s life was in danger, but the arrest of three men accused of the crime didn’t add up. It ultimately became Goldman’s “obsession.”

Malcolm’s co-writer for The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Alex Haley, quietly finished the book he started with Malcolm, and a small upstart publishing house snatched it up. A diverse group of magazines got in line to run articles about Malcolm X’s life, finally sensing that White America “’needed his voice even more than Blacks did.’”

But though Malcolm X was gone, he continued to leave an impact.

He didn’t live long enough to see the official founding of the Black Panther Party, but he was influential on its beginning. He never knew of the first Kwanzaa, or the triumphs of a convert named Muhammad Ali.

Malcolm left his mark on music. He influenced at least three major athletes.

He was a “touchstone” for a president …

While it’s true that “The Afterlife of Malcolm X” is an eye-opening book, one that works as a great companion to the autobiography, it’s also a fact that it’s somewhat scattered. Is it a look at Malcolm’s life, his legacy, or is it a “murder mystery”?

Turns out, it’s all three, but the storylines are not smooth. There are twists and tangents and that may take some getting used-to. Just when you’re immersed, even absorbed in this book, to the point where you forget about your surroundings, author Mark Whitaker abruptly moves to a different part of the story. It may be jarring.

And yet, it’s a big part of this book, and it’s essential for readers to know the investigation’s outcome and what we know today. It doesn’t change Malcolm X’s legacy, but it adds another frame around it.

If you’ve read the autobiography, if you haven’t thought about Malcolm X in a while, or if you think you know all there is to know, then you owe it to yourself to find “The Afterlife of Malcolm X.”

For you, this is a book you won’t easily forget.

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Activism

Asm. McKinnor Pushes Bill to Protect California Workers from High Heat, Other Climate Hazards

“Extreme heat is on the rise, with year-over-year, record-breaking temperatures that threaten the health and safety of California workers, from warehouse workers who lack adequate cooling, to janitors cleaning buildings after the air conditioning has been turned off, to line chefs cooking in unventilated kitchens,” McKinnor said at the rally.

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Asm. Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood) stands with members of California Labor for Climate Justice (CLCJ) during a rally at the State Capitol, where she spoke about her bill, AB 694. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.
Asm. Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood) stands with members of California Labor for Climate Justice (CLCJ) during a rally at the State Capitol, where she spoke about her bill, AB 694. CBM photo by Antonio Ray Harvey.

By Antonio‌ ‌Ray‌ ‌Harvey‌, ‌California‌ ‌Black‌ ‌Media‌

On May 6, employees from industries across the private and public sectors — including utility, domestic, janitorial, healthcare, oil and gas, and farm workers — joined educators and others in Sacramento to push lawmakers to strengthen the state’s health and safety enforcement systems.

The rally at the State Capitol was organized by a statewide coalition of 15 worker unions called California Labor for Climate Jobs (CLCJ).

Organizers say their campaign to pressure legislators and state officials to not abandon their responsibility to protect workers is urgent as climate hazards rise and federal government efforts to pull back on oversight and enforcement increase.

“Approximately 19 million workers in the state are here together to have a say in what happens next,” said Norman Rogers, vice president of United Steelworkers Local 675. “In seven of the last eight years, California has recorded record-high temperatures while workers from our state’s fields to our commercial kitchens, from our warehouses to our schools continue to work in dangerously high-heat conditions.”

Cal/OSHA provides protection and improves the health and safety of working men and women in the state. The agency also enforces public safety measures to protect passengers riding on elevators, amusement rides, tramways, and more.

According to a 2023 report by the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), workplace hazards are responsible for killing approximately 140,000 workers each year, including 5,283 from traumatic injuries.

Hazardous working conditions have caused an estimated 135,000 deaths from occupational diseases. That’s about 385 workers dying each day, according to the report.

Assemblymember Tina McKinnor (D-Inglewood) spoke at the rally to discuss legislation she authored, Assembly Bill (AB) 694, which proposes a pathway to jobs for Cal/OSHA to ensure stronger public safety enforcement.

According to CLCJ, Cal/OSHA is experiencing an understaffing crisis that is evident in the agency’s 43% vacancy rate.

McKinnor, a member of the California Legislative Black Caucus (CLBC), said the bill aims to fully staff the state agency with enforcement agents who have expertise in working in California’s most dangerous work environments.

The Assembly Committee on Higher Education voted 9-0 to advance AB 694 on April 29. It is now headed to the Committee on Appropriations for consideration.

“Extreme heat is on the rise, with year-over-year, record-breaking temperatures that threaten the health and safety of California workers, from warehouse workers who lack adequate cooling, to janitors cleaning buildings after the air conditioning has been turned off, to line chefs cooking in unventilated kitchens,” McKinnor said at the rally.

McKinnor continued, “We must urgently shore up our health and safety systems, so we can enforce California heat standards and safeguard worker health.”

CLCJ released the California Worker Climate Bill of Rights last fall, urging state legislators to propose policy solutions to protect workers from climate hazards such as extreme heat, fires, smoke, and floods.

Norman Rogers, Second Vice President of United Steelworkers Local 675 in Carson, said oil refinery operations around the state pose “the most hazards.

“AB 694 seeks to recreate Cal/OSHA to hire union oil and gas workers leveraging the knowledge, health and safety training, and process safety training used daily to ensure safe, compliant refinery operations,” Rogers added.

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