The labor dispute comes one year after Kaiser reached a $50 million settlement with state regulators who said the health care giant's mental health care system lacked adequate staffing that caused lapses in access to care for patients,

Thousands of Kaiser Permanente mental health workers have gone on strike in Southern California, saying they're overworked and lack crucial benefits. Meanwhile, the company has said the union is dragging out negotiations and it has already taken major strides to improve labor conditions.

We want to be with our patients, not on a picket line, but we can’t keep working in a system that treats mental health care like an assembly line job,” said a therapist for the