LOS ANGELES — Workers at seven Kaiser Permanente facilities took to the pavement Tuesday to protest management’s apparently experimental use of robots in housekeeping, fearing they will lose good jobs to machines. Kaiser denies having any plans to displace workers, saying the robotic vacuums were only being tested in a pilot program.
The Kaiser workers assembled from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. outside seven facilities in LA and Orange County “to protest Kaiser Permanente’s attempt to replace workers with robots in a reckless plan that threatens families and puts patients and staff at risk from COVID-19,” said their union, the 97,000-member SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West.
“We see these robot vacuums, and of course we worry about our jobs and our families,” said Brenda Martina Castaneda, an environmental Services worker at Kaiser Woodland Hills.
Added her Woodland Hills colleague, Juan Juregui: “Robots cannot ensure a sterile environment the way trained EVS professionals can. In the age of COVID-19, Kaiser’s robot experiment is reckless and needs to be stopped immediately.”
Kaiser has denied that it is planning to fire workers and replace them with robots, saying the vacuums were tested as part of a pilot program.
“Kaiser Permanente empowers its teams with state-of-the-art tools and technologies to support our mission of providing high-quality, affordable health care to our patients,” according to Kaiser. “As part of that commitment, Kaiser Permanente Woodland Hills launched a 90-day pilot program last month to evaluate whether autonomous vacuum sweeper technology can help keep our medical facilities cleaner, reduce the spread of infectious diseases and provide a safer environment for our patients and staff. We are committed to working in partnership with our SEIU-UHW labor partners to evaluate the results of this pilot program.
“We have no plans to replace any of our workers at this time and will continue to work with our labor partners to create a workplace that best serves our employees and patients. This 90-day pilot program is just one example of our many efforts to continuously enhance patient safety, our processes and the overall patient experience.”
The Kaiser protests took place outside the following facilities:
- Kaiser Panorama City Medical Center, 13651 Willard St., Panorama City
- Kaiser LAMC Hospital, 4867 Sunset Blvd., Los Angeles
- Kaiser Permanente Orange County – Anaheim Medical Center, 3460 E. La Palma, Anaheim
- Kaiser Permanente Downey Medical Center, 9333 Imperial Highway, Downey
- Kaiser South Bay – Kaiser Permanente Carson Medical Offices, 18600 S. Figueroa St., Gardena
- Kaiser Permanente West Los Angeles Medical Center, 6041 Cadillac Ave., Los Angeles
- Kaiser Permanente Baldwin Park Medical Center, 1011 Baldwin Park Blvd., Baldwin Park