US healthcare workers go on strike over wages and staff shortages

Kaiser Permanente mental health workers and supporters march outside a Kaiser facility in Sacramento, California (AP)

Picketing is under way at Kaiser Permanente hospitals as some 75,000 US healthcare workers go on strike in Virginia, California and three other states over wages and staffing shortages.

Kaiser Permanente is one of the US’s larger insurers and healthcare system operators, with 39 hospitals nationwide.