Thousands of Kaiser Permanente mental health clinicians plan 5-day strike in California

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- About 4,000 mental health employees plan to strike at Kaiser Permanente facilities across the state starting Monday.

The planned strike is supposed to happen all week long, ending on Friday.

Workers say they hope to force the company to address understaffing problems that force patients to wait a month or longer for appointments.

In a statement, Kaiser says the union's demands would reduce, not increase the availability of mental health care for its patients.

And it says all Kaiser hospitals and medical offices will be open - though some non-urgent services will be postponed.