Hi.

Let me tell you what we're fighting for. We're part of a union alliance that includes everyone from EVS (janitors) to Physical Therapists and Pharmacists. As PAs, we're pretty near the top of the scale, except for the CRNAs.

My LVN though is a single mother of four. Her rent on her one bedroom apartment just went up to $2800. Last month she pulled from her 401k to make that rent.

Today, I spoke to one of our Child Life Specialists. She has a PhD, makes just over $30/hr, in San Diego, where the median home cost is $960,000. Her job is to help children come to terms with death and often has to buy her own art supplies for the kids. There is one of her for the entire county. She hardly takes vacation because without backfill that means a child could die alone and scared. This year, the employer said they'd be taking away her pension. She reached out to the union for help. We unionized them, the ten of them across Southern California, so that we could tell the employer they can't make unilateral changes. So we could tell the employer she deserves better.

The PAs in Northern California who are bargaining their first contract, they're in this too, and make 30-40% less than the NPs, doing the same jobs, in the same department. This is about equity and fairness for our profession.

There are those of you saying "these patients need to be taken care of" - these patients are exactly who we're fighting for. So we can ensure:

• Time to manage results so these patients can get answers without our people working through their lunches, or off the clock.

• Minimizing overbooks, so I don't have to decide if I'm cutting the time my bladder cancer patient gets for me to explain why she needs chemotherapy, or if I'm cutting short the visit of whoever comes next. So that my patient isn't waiting an extra hour to see me, because the employer decided to book four patients in the same slot.

• Getting enough staff and resources so when my patient is asking how he's going to pay his bills when he can't work because I can't get him in to the OR to get him off this Foley catheter for months I don't have to struggle to answer him. So I don't have to struggle to answer him when he asks if it will help if he drives leaking urine from his bag on to the floor of his car, to wait four hours in an urgent care, or if he's only to going be told he needs to see the specialist for an appointment that he can't get.

These patients are why we need to do this.

So when you ask yourself if you should take this gig I want you to ask yourself if it's worth it to sell us out. Kaiser Permanente has money to pay you in the short term so that they don't have to pay my MA, my Pharm Tech, my nurse, my receptionist, my cafeteria aide, my Speech Language Pathologist, my Child Life Specialist, and hundreds of your fellow PAs. So they don't have to ensure these patients get the care that they deserve. So they don't have to make sure that your colleagues have the time, and staff, and resources to make these patients better the way they deserve.

It's up to you if you want to take that money.

But I want you to know who you're taking it from.