Kaiser Permanente pharmacists and technicians at medical facilities in Southern California voted Wednesday, Oct. 15 to authorize a strike, citing unfair labor practices. No date has been set for a strike, which would affect some 3,000 union members and dozens of pharmacies.

The walkout — which is slated to end by 7 a.m. Sunday — involves about 4,000 employees who work at Kaiser’s Sunnyside Medical Center in Clackamas, Westside Medical Center in Hillsboro and dozens of clinics and surgical centers stretching along the Interstate 5 corridor from Longview, Washington, to Eugene.

Thousands of nurses and other health care workers at Kaiser Permanente facilities are set to go on strike Tuesday.

The roughly 6,000 health care professionals of the OFNHP are locked in a contract fight with their employer, Kaiser Permanente, the sprawling health care consortium. The mediocrity in question is not that of the staffers themselves;