FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE:
May 12, 2025

CALIFORNIA CENTRAL COAST – Frontline healthcare workers at Planned Parenthood California Central Coast (PPCCC) have voted to authorize a strike over management’s unfair labor practices and refusal to address the urgent short-staffing crisis. The workers overwhelmingly approved the strike with a 100% vote following months of failed negotiations and continued bad-faith bargaining by Planned Parenthood management.

“We work here because we care deeply about our patients and our community. But there’s only so much we can do when we’re constantly understaffed and management refuses to bargain in good faith, ” said Mike Solemar, a physician at PPCCC. “Patients are waiting longer, and sometimes not getting seen at all. We believe in our mission to provide quality reproductive care for anyone who walks through our doors. Enough is enough. We need management to stop the unfair labor practices and listen to the frontline healthcare workers.”

Workers say that despite their dedication to the mission of Planned Parenthood, management refuses to invest in the staff who make that mission possible. Turnover has reached crisis levels, as experienced caregivers leave for higher-paying, more sustainable jobs. Staffing shortages are stretching the remaining workforce thin and putting patient care at risk.

PPCCC healthcare workers have repeatedly proposed solutions to the staffing crisis and patient safety issues, but management continues to reject their efforts and commit unfair labor practices in the process. Workers say Planned Parenthood’s leadership has ignored their calls to bargain in good faith, forcing them to take action.

The strike would include a range of essential health center staff at six clinics across the Central Coast, including medical assistants, health educators, clinicians, and support staff who deliver critical reproductive and preventive healthcare services to thousands of patients every year. The workers have not yet set a date for the strike.

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SEIU-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW) is a healthcare justice union of more than 120,000 healthcare workers, patients, and healthcare activists united to ensure affordable, accessible, high-quality care for all Californians provided by valued and respected healthcare workers.