Planned Parenthood clinics in San Luis Obispo, Santa Maria, Santa Barbara, Ventura, Thousand Oaks, and Oxnard are poised to stop services until management improves labor practices contributing to high turnover rates.
“We’ve heard a few different things from staff who have quit recently,” Planned Parenthood staff physician Mike Solemar said. “Some of the most common reasons are that they don’t feel listened to by their supervisors, that they don’t feel adequately compensated for the hard work that they do, especially working evenings and weekend shifts.”
Solemar’s home clinic is in Ventura, but he travels to most of Planned Parenthood California Central Coast’s six locations. His work includes providing vasectomies in SLO and soon in Santa Maria and abortions in Thousand Oaks.
The decision to strike germinated from an internal informational town hall about a strike vote organized earlier in May. An email to union members—front-line health care workers—containing an electronic ballot followed. A week later, results showed that 91 percent of 98 union members voted to strike.
“That’s essentially all of our members that are not on maternity leave or on some other form of leave,” Solemar said.
A strike vote doesn’t immediately guarantee a strike but authorizes the bargaining team to call for one. The workers haven’t yet set a date for the strike, and services at the Central Coast clinics are active as of May 14.
Allegedly dissatisfied with management, several Planned Parenthood employees have reportedly quit to accept jobs with better workplace conditions and stronger health insurance. It’s resulted in the Central Coast clinics being short-staffed, according to Solemar who’s also the program director for gender-affirming care.
Recently, he saw a patient who came to their appointment upset because they had a three-week gap in their hormone therapy despite calling the clinic a week before they ran out of their medication.
“We were booked out four weeks, and so they had to wait and ended up with a gap in their hormones,” Solemar said. “It is very distressing, and it undoes a lot of the work they had done in their transition, and I was very frustrated, because I pride myself on providing high-quality care.”
He said he wants Planned Parenthood management to bargain in good faith so that turnover rates can be reduced and patients get the care they deserve. While the full list of demands is being ironed out, Solemar added that workers are advocating for a wage differential to receive higher pay for evening and weekend shifts.
A May 12 press release stated that Planned Parenthood’s leadership has ignored calls to bargain in good faith, forcing workers to take action. But the Central Coast region’s President and CEO Jenna Tosh disagreed in statement sent to New Times.
“To date, we have participated in 14 bargaining sessions with SEIU-UHW [the union],” Tosh said. “Throughout those sessions, we have maintained a respectful and productive working relationship, which has allowed us to make great progress. In fact, we have reached tentative agreements on 15 items, with just a few outstanding items remaining that we have been actively working to reach an agreement on.”
Tosh added that leadership learned through social media that the union decided to conduct a strike authorization vote. According to her, the union hasn’t contacted the Central Coast chapter directly about the proposed strike. Tosh also said that the union hasn’t issued a written 10-day strike notice yet, which is required before a health care strike can occur.
She told New Times that its clinics have better turnover rates compared to industry standards.
“We are transparent about our hours when hiring and consider our full schedule when determining base pay,” Tosh said. “Additionally, our contract proposal includes 12 percent to 17 percent in pay raises over the three years of the contract, as well as an increase in minimum wage, differential pay for employees who float to different centers and cover shifts.” Δ
This article appears in May 15-25, 2025.