It’s health care as usual for Planned Parenthood California Central Coast [PPCCC] clinics after a tentative agreement between union members and management averted strikes scheduled for June.
“The agreement still needs to be ratified by workers before it goes into effect, but while the ratification process is completed, the strikes have been called off,” SEIU-United Healthcare Workers union spokesperson Maria Leal said. “Patients of PPCCC should expect no disruption in care provided at the clinics.”
Health care workers at the Central Coast clinics in San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Thousand Oaks, and Oxnard engaged in more than a dozen bargaining sessions with leadership, airing concerns about alleged low compensation that contributed to high turnover rates.
In May, the workers’ union authorized a strike until Planned Parenthood management improved labor practices. On June 6, the union announced that workers would begin the strike on June 10, with an expectation it would continue through June 11 if negotiations didn’t progress favorably.
Central Coast Planned Parenthood spokesperson Luz Reyes-Martin said that management developed a “strong, collaborative” relationship with the union, and the discussions never stalled.
“We were surprised to learn the union opted to submit a strike notice,” she said. “When the 10-day strike authorization notice was issued, PPCCC continued to offer additional dates to continue bargaining, as we had throughout the process.”
The union announced averting the strike on June 9. Leal told New Times that workers settled a three-year contract with management that includes guaranteed annual wage increases; more affordable health care options for employees; job security; parental leave; additional paid time off and bonuses on employee anniversary dates; shift differentials for working weekends, taking extra shifts, and traveling to other locations; and “fully addresses” the reported unfair labor practices.
“We are proud to have better turnover rates as compared to the industry standards in health care,” Reyes-Martin said. “PPCCC’s employee engagement scores and patient satisfaction scores are higher than the national average.”
The union declined to provide New Times with a summary of the tentative agreement, adding it should be ratified by the end of June 21.
The proposed strike and subsequent agreement arrived at a time when House Republicans passed a budget reconciliation bill that defunds Planned Parenthood by banning Medicaid reimbursement.
The California Central Coast chapter also joined four other Planned Parenthood chapters across the country in a federal lawsuit against the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and its secretary, Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The lawsuit opposes the department’s order to align with President Trump’s executive orders for continued Teen Pregnancy Prevention funding.
“Once this contract is in place, our hope is that good health care workers will stay on at PPCCC so they can continue to provide quality care to their patients,” Leal said. “Our priority is to work together to protect our workforce and to address broader challenges, including potential cuts to Medicaid.” Δ
This article appears in Winning Images 2025.