Planned Parenthood North Central States workers rallied behind their bargaining team in July, with support from elected and labor leaders.
The union of over 400 Planned Parenthood workers in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska and the Dakotas will enter mediation with the North Central States (PPNCS) chapter after a frustrating round of bargaining last week prompted another elected union leader to resign from the organization.
In a press conference yesterday, April Clark said she used to joke that she was a Planned Parenthood “lifer,” but the senior training and development specialist is now working her final two weeks with the sexual health nonprofit after eight years of service.
Clark was among 14 original members of the union’s bargaining team, and her departure will mean more than half those elected leaders are no longer with PPNCS, after management slapped all 14 with “final written notices” four months into the bargaining process.
The disciplinary action, which the union has challenged as retaliatory and illegal, means any subsequent infraction – no matter how serious – could result in termination. “I feel paranoid about every action that I take, which is not a great way to feel the majority of your waking time,” Clark said.
The move has had a chilling effect throughout the bargaining unit, which voted 264-26 in favor of forming a union with SEIU Healthcare Minnesota and Iowa last year. The nonprofit’s already high turnover rate – a reason workers cited as a factor in forming their union – has climbed to 44% since contract negotiations began, according to organizers.
“For my mental health, I am leaving – like so many other leaders of this bargaining team have done since receiving their final notices,” Clark said, choking back tears. “Unfortunately, so are many of our other coworkers. I don’t know anyone who isn’t actively looking for employment elsewhere, and that isn’t hyperbole.”
For Clark and others, the final straw came during negotiations last week. Previous sessions had yielded “slow but steady progress,” health educator and LGTBQ care coordinator Elizabeth Wolfe said, and at a meeting in July, management pledged to bring a new health insurance proposal to the next session.
But instead of new health care language, Wolfe said, PPNCS executives offered the union a choice between a three-year contract with “minimal wage increases,” or one with bigger raises that clawed back several agreements reached earlier in negotiations, including longevity pay, increases to paid time off and floating holidays, expanded bereavement leave and new professional development opportunities.
“What the negotiators and leaders of our union have told us is that they’ve never seen an employer make a proposal to undo so many substantial pieces of progress already won through the bargaining process,” Wolfe said.
Workers have long since given up hope that Planned Parenthood, an organization with deep progressive roots, would seek a collaborative relationship with their union.
PPNCS refused workers’ petition for voluntary union recognition despite overwhelming support, and the attacks on bargaining team members have drawn comparisons to Starbucks and Amazon from veteran SEIU leaders. The union rescinded its endorsement of PPNCS CEO Ruth Richardson, who served in the Minnesota Legislature until her abrupt resignation last week.
But until now, the union’s frustrations had stemmed from actions away from the bargaining table. The unprecedented exchange last week has union members planning an escalation of their contract campaign.
Raven LaBeau, a health center associate in Minneapolis, said no options are off the table.
“We will accept nothing less than (contract) language that honors and is appropriate for the work that every single one of us does every day,” they said. “This work and those that perform it are too important – too necessary – to tolerate half measures and weak proposals made by management at the table.
“My message to management is this. There are more of us than there are of you, and truly we don’t need you as much as you need us. We are the lifeblood of this affiliate, and it’s time to treat us accordingly.”
PPNCS union members encourage supporters to track their social media feeds – @PPNCSUnited – for information about upcoming calls to action and events.
Union Advocate 