Approximately 180 pharmacists and optometrists in D.C. and Virginia plan to strike on Wednesday alongside more than 75,000 Kaiser Permanente health care workers across the nation, according to their union OPEIU Local 2. The strike would be the largest of its kind in U.S. history.

Local health care workers plan to picket outside Kaiser’s Springfield Medical Center in Virginia Wednesday morning if a new labor agreement is not reached with the company, says Sarah Levesque, Local 2’s secretary-treasurer. The union is meeting again with Kaiser executives on Monday in the hopes of averting a strike.

“A strike is a last resort. This is not something that anyone wants,” Levesque tells DCist/WAMU. “They want to take care of their patients,” she says of the Kaiser workers.

She says local pharmacists and optometrists are going on a one-day strike to underscore the severity of the staffing crisis at one of the nation’s largest health care providers. The union is hoping to reach an agreement that would mitigate the crisis by investing more in staff. Specifically, the coalition of unions representing Kaiser workers is asking for a $25-per-hour minimum wage across the company, mirroring legislation that recently passed in California. Among other things, the coalition is also calling for a 6.5% across-the-board pay increase for the first two years of the four-year contract, dropping to 5.75% in subsequent years.

But the coalition says they have not been able to reach an agreement with Kaiser ahead of their contract expiring over the weekend. They will only be able to reach a new contract agreement when “Kaiser executives stop bargaining in bad faith,” a coalition spokesperson says via email, accusing them of unfair labor practices.

Kaiser Permanente did not respond to requests for comment.

Local patients who utilize Kaiser’s eye and pharmacy services will be impacted, says Levesque. Because these outpatient departments are already short staffed, Levesque suspects pharmacies will be minimally open or might even close. She suspects the same will be true of the optical centers. Kaiser patients already have to wait an average of three months to see an eye doctor, Levesque adds, likely making rescheduling complicated for many patients.

The union coalition gave Kaiser more than a week’s notice that they would strike if they did not reach an agreement. A company representative told the Washington Post they have contingency plans in the event of a work stoppage to ensure patients continue to receive “high-quality care for the duration of the strike.”

Levesque says workers don’t want to harm patients but they are “stretched too thin” to serve patients well. “Health care workers got into health care because they have a desire to help patients,” she says. “You have to treat them with respect to get them to stay.”

David Hawa, a pharmacist at Kaiser’s Springfield Medical Center and his union’s shop steward, has never gone on strike in his 28-year-long career. But he says the conditions they’re facing make it necessary. The four pharmacists at his center have not been able to keep up with the surge in demand, resulting in long lines of patients trying to pick up medication. He’s says he knows of several medical professionals across Northern Virginia who have left their jobs due to the pressures of the industry since the pandemic started. With more staff, they’d be better at their jobs, he adds, juggling less at once and spending more time with individuals patients.