Despite an offer of recognition from management late last week, the would-be union for Planned Parenthood Northern California said on Monday that it is not accepting a deal from their CEO, because its conditions were non-starters.
Workers with Planned Parenthood Northern California announced a union drive on Jan. 22, saying they had a “supermajority” of support among workers.
Gilda Gonzales, CEO of the Northern California division, then told the union on Thursday that she would voluntarily recognize them without a formal election — a process that can drag on for months, and allows management to potentially convince workers not to unionize.
But the conditions attached to that recognition, according to the union, required more negotiation: Gonzales suggested having a Planned Parenthood executive count union cards to determine whether the majority of voters were supportive, and recommended that a subset of workers be excluded from the vote. (It was not clear which kind of workers.)
The union has countered, asking for a neutral third party to count the votes and for all eligible workers to eventually be included in the union, though it said some may be initially excluded from the vote.
“The CEO replied to our request for voluntary recognition, and there is no voluntary recognition agreed upon at this time,” the union wrote in a statement. “We appreciate that PPNorCal executives are willing to discuss the issue further, and we are hopeful we can come to an agreement.”
The union said it responded to the CEO on Monday, outlining its opposition. Negotiations will now continue.
The Planned Parenthood union would represent hundreds of clinicians, nurses, social workers, and administrative and support staff at the nonprofit’s 19 northern California locations, including one in San Francisco at 1522 Bush St.
After garnering support from a majority of its workers through union authorization cards, representatives of PPNorCal Workers United sent a letter to Gonzales on Monday morning to ask for voluntary recognition within 72 hours.
That deadline had passed, but management notified workers on Thursday that they would voluntarily recognize the union after all — albeit with caveats.
The nonprofit’s management did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
There has been a nationwide trend among Planned Parenthood workers to unionize since the U.S. Supreme Court ended federal protections for abortion rights in June 2022. Following intense workloads that arose after a spike in abortion demand, Planned Parenthood workers launched unionization campaigns in at least seven states where abortion remains legal, including Iowa, Minnesota and Massachusetts.
In California, some 550 Planned Parenthood workers in southern California also voted to join SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West last September.
Since 2022, a growing number of out-of-state patients have been traveling to California for abortion services. In response, Planned Parenthood Northern California expanded its hours of operation and saw a 38 percent increase in abortion demand since June 2022, but did not subsequently increase staff, according to SEIU 1021, which would house the nascent union.
Workers looked to collective bargaining to bring in more staffing, said Chelsea Fink, a spokesperson with SEIU 1021. The union drive at Planned Parenthood Northern California grew rapidly in the past two months, she said.
The original version of this story noted that the Planned Parenthood NorCal CEO had extended a voluntary recognition offer. Since then, the union has outlined its opposition to the offer from management. The story has been updated and republished to reflect the union’s stance.
After a week of mostly really frustrating news stories, this headline totally took me by surprise!
Thanks to the leadership of Planned Parenthood Nor Cal for doing the right thing, and for providing ML staff and readers a breath of fresh air to start our weekends.