More than 75,000 workers strike at hundreds of Kaiser Permanente health facilities across U.S.

More than 75,000 workers at Kaiser Permanente — the nation’s largest health-care nonprofit organization — went on strike Wednesday at hospitals and medical offices in five states after the company and labor negotiators failed to resolve a dispute over staffing levels.

The Coalition of Kaiser Permanente Unions says the work stoppage is the largest strike of health-care workers in U.S. history.

The strike targets Kaiser hospitals and medical offices in California, Colorado, Oregon, Virginia, the District of Columbia and Washington. Kaiser Permanente serves nearly 13 million patients and operates 39 hospitals and more than 600 medical offices across eight states and the District of Columbia.

The striking workers include vocational nurses, emergency department technicians, radiology technicians, X-ray technicians, respiratory therapists, medical assistants, pharmacists and hundreds of other positions.