As the strike at Kaiser Permanente expands to include thousands more workers in its third week, union representatives for 34,000 employees and the health care giant remain far apart on the issues, leaving patients in a lurch.
Michael Nestor, a retired emergency room doctor with Kaiser, is upset with the company’s entire medical system. The 74-year-old Huntington Beach resident suffers from two medical conditions he characterizes as life-threatening. Neither is being treated urgently as the strike continues.
“I don’t deserve to die like this. It’s a horrible way to treat me,” Nestor said in a phone interview Monday. “How does an urgent surgery like mine get canceled?”…