Thousands of Kaiser Permanente hospital workers and nurses will walk off the job Jan. 31, making good on threats to strike over stalled bargaining talks with the health network.

Officials representing some 4,000 members of the National Union of Healthcare Workers told Kaiser on Tuesday they will be grabbing picket signs for the one-day walkout.

Kaiser and the union – which represents mental health professionals, therapists and optical workers in Northern California – have been in contract negotiations for more than a year over pension benefits, health care coverage and staffing issues.

It's the fourth NUHW walkout of Kaiser facilities since negotiations with Kaiser began in 2010, union officials said.

"It's kind of like a football game – you have to gain yardage. You have to do repeated actions," Ann Amato, a licensed clinical social worker at Kaiser's Morse Avenue facility in Sacramento, said of the one-day strikes. "They're handing everybody the same contract, and we're holding the line."

On Thursday, the larger California Nurses Association, or CNA, said its 17,000 Kaiser nurses would also leave their posts Jan. 31 in solidarity. The nurses association had said earlier this month they would join the strike line if NUHW's members decided to walk. And 650 members of Stationary Engineers Local 39 are joining the Jan. 31 work stoppage, said union officials.

Kaiser officials responded in a statement Friday. They emphasized that its facilities would remain open during the walkout, disputed NUHW claims of retirement benefits takeaways and said that talking is best done at the negotiating table, not on the picket line.

"While we recognize NUHW's legal right to conduct a strike, we believe the bargaining table is the best place to resolve differences, and we are disappointed in NUHW's decision to strike," said Gay Westfall, a Kaiser senior vice president.

Westfall also said Kaiser was "disappointed and concerned" that CNA nurses will join the strike, saying the action violates CNA's contract. Kaiser nurses agreed to a three-year contract effective Sept. 1 last year.

In September, thousands of CNA nurses in Northern California took to picket lines at more than 30 hospitals to support fellow union members protesting management-proposed benefit cuts at Kaiser and Sutter Health.

"Our hope is that (Kaiser) takes us seriously and starts bargaining with us," Amato said. "We don't want to go on strike if we don't have to."

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