Service & Solidarity Spotlight: Workers at Planned Parenthood’s Largest Health Care Affiliate Vote to Join SEIU

Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.

More than 400 front-line health care workers at Planned Parenthood Mar Monte have voted to join Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 521.

Members of Planned Parenthood Mar Monte Workers United (PPMMWU) perform essential roles at 30 clinics throughout mid-California and Nevada. This supermajority vote by staff of Planned Parenthood’s largest affiliated network comes in the midst of uncertainty around Medicaid funding and rollbacks on reproductive rights.

“Securing our union secures decisions about our work like staffing, resources, and ensuring a sustainable level of care our patients depend on,” said Ryah Issa, a health services specialist at the Planned Parenthood San Jose clinic, in a press release. “While courts and politicians continue to police our work, our union gives us the power to defend clinical integrity and guarantees our patients receive the comprehensive care we all deserve. Many workers are patients in our clinics, too.”