MANTECA — Their chants told their story. Their voices, some boosted with megaphones, sent their message loud and clear:

“Are you ready to fight? Damn right.”

“We’re fired up — can’t take it no more.”

“What’s this about? Patient care.”

“Hey-hey, ho-ho, Kaiser’s layoffs got to go.”

Representatives from the Service Employees International Union-United Health Workers rolled into Manteca in a purple RV on Tuesday, Sept. 15, parked along a curb outside Kaiser Permanente and picketed up and down Yosemite Avenue.

They let those inside Kaiser and driving by on Yosemite know they opposed the upcoming loss of employee positions. About 200 employees of Kaiser in Manteca, including 90 percent of the day shift, joined the march during breaks and lunch.

Nathan Selzer, communications specialist for the UHW, said this is the third week of pickets, which were scheduled to continue Wednesday in San Jose. The goal is to send a message to Kaiser.

“We’re not going to put up with this,” he said. “You all are doing very, very well on basically the backs of workers. You need to respect our agreements, respect our contract, and no layoffs for anyone.”

Kaiser issued a statement Tuesday that, while never using the word layoffs, explained that the health care giant would “eliminate a number of represented positions in Northern California” because of the poor economy, which has meant declining membership, lower Medicare reimbursement rates and changes related to health care reform.

The statement from Gay Westfall, senior vice president for human resources, said Kaiser of Northern California “worked collaboratively” with its labor management partnership to reach an agreement that “provides meaningful choices for affected employees and unique voluntary incentives for certain groups of employees.

“Our hope is we can minimize the impact of these position eliminations on our affected employees,” Westfall said.

Selzer disputed Kaiser’s intention and reasoning. He said Kaiser indicated to almost 2,000 workers the intent to eliminate positions, “which we’ll call layoffs.”

“Kaiser has justified their actions, saying these are tough economic times, everyone has to tighten their belts, etcetera, whereas last quarter, they had a $620 million profit, so it just doesn’t ring very true for a lot of the membership,” Selzer said. “It’s not voluntary, which is something we negotiated. People could take voluntary leave. They could take off. If it’s not voluntary, it’s a layoff. Kaiser members are very clear we did not agree to any layoffs, and we will not accept any layoffs.”

Through Tuesday, 90 employees applied for the “voluntary separation plan,” according to Westfall, and more anticipated applications in the next month would allow Kaiser to reduce the number of employees affected by eliminations.

The package enables employees to stay at Kaiser for up to 52 weeks. Another option is a package with up to 52 weeks of severance pay and extended health care benefits. Kaiser also pledged to help employees find other jobs within the company.

Exactly how many people will be affected in Manteca won’t be known until the number of applications for the buyout is finalized, according to Rob Veneski of Kaiser Fresno media relations.

Ofelia Medina, who works at Kaiser Manteca, said employees support the company’s mission — to provide health care — but a full staff is needed.

“We have to have our employees continue working to provide that health care, the services our members deserve,” Medina said. “Members come because they believe in the health care from Kaiser, which is a wonderful organization. If we are short-staffed, we won’t be able to provide that healthy environment and the quality of services that all our members deserve.”