CNN —A labor contract for thousands of unionized health care workers across five states and Washington, DC, is set to expire on Saturday at 11:59 pm PT, potentially triggering the largest health care strike in US history. More than 75,000 health care employees who work at hundreds of Kaiser Permanente facilities plan to strike from October 4 through October 7 if a labor deal is not reached. They work in a wide range of health care support positions, which include nursing assistants, x-ray technicians, pharmacists and optometrists, among other roles. Unlike traditional fee-for-service medical systems in the United States, Kaiser Permanente patients pay membership dues for health care services. Kaiser Permanente has 12.7 million members and operates 39 hospitals and 622 medical offices, according to its website.

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Persons: Kaiser Permanente’s, Renee Saldana, Hilary Costa, ” Costa, “, ”, Kaiser, UHW, Saldana, they’re, Betsy Twitchell, ” Twitchell Organizations: CNN, Kaiser Permanente, Service Employees International Union, United Healthcare, SEIU, UHW, Permanente, “ Workers Locations: Washington, DC, Kaiser, California , Colorado , Oregon, Washington , Virginia, United States