(CENTRAL NEW YORK) – When Non-Represented Workers Employed in a Non-Union Workplace Take the Initiative to Get More Than Enough Signed Cards to Have a Union, You Know it’s Seriously Needed.  And That’s What’s Happening Right Now With More Than 60 Health Care Workers Who are Employed by Planned Parenthood at Five Central New York Locations in Batavia, Rochester, Suburban Greece, Canandaigua and Syracuse.

“Having a Union Here is Our ‘Only’ Hope of Making Things Better,” Cathy Stein, a 39-Year Registered Nurse (RN) Whose Been Employed by Planned Parenthood in Rochester for the Past Year and a Half, Told WNYLaborToday.com This Week.  “What We Want is a ‘Say.’  We Make Planned Parenthood ‘Roll’ and We Should Have the Opportunity to Have a ‘Say’ in How it ‘Rolls.’  Management ‘Does Not Listen.’  They’ve Totally Ignored Us and Our Suggestions.  We’ve Been ‘Disrespected.’  We Want to be ‘Respected’ as Professional Caregivers.”

Suburban Buffalo-Headquartered Communications Workers of America (CWA) Local 1168 Represents 35 Planned Parenthood Caregivers in Buffalo and Niagara Falls.  After a Merger Between the Group’s Western and Central New York Offices at the Beginning of the Year, Employees in Central New York Got a Chance to See What Planned Parenthood Employees in Buffalo and Niagara Receive Through Their CWA Local 1168 Contract. 

It Wasn’t Long After That the Non-Represented Caregivers in Central New York Took the Initiative, Contacted Local 1168 and Began the Process to Go Union. 

In Fact, Planned Parenthood’s Non-Represented Workforce Took the Bull by the Horns, Going Ahead Before the Union Could Get Started and Got More Than 70% of the Organization’s Employees in Central New York to Sign Union Authorization Cards in Moving Towards Unionizing the Workforce.

“Management Doesn’t Want Us to Talk to the CWA,” 31-Year-old Planned Parenthood Nurse Myra Perry Told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper This Week.  “The Biggest Thing is We Want a ‘Say’ in Our Job and We Want to be ‘Respected’ as Professionals.  We Want to be ‘Treated Fairly.’  Management’s Trying to Discourage Us From Unionizing.  At the Same Time, We’re Losing Valuable Staff (Due to the Present Working Conditions).”

Talking to Both Stein and Perry, There are Several Issues That They Say Ultimately Drove the Non-Represented Caregivers to Seek Out Union Representation With CWA Local 1168 - Including, They say: A Difference in Pay Scales (About $3 an Hour); Smaller Staffs That are Forced to Maintain Current and Increasing Patient Loads; Longer Work Hours With No Overtime Compensation; Weekend Work Days With No Overtime Compensation; and a Shrinking Staff, Many Who’ve Made the Decision to Leave.

WNYLaborToday.com Was Also Provided With a Copy of a Mission Statement That Local 1168 Reps Patrick Weisansal and Ann Converso say the Central New York Workers Put Together Themselves.  The Employees’ Mission Statement Focused in on Five Areas: Mutual Respect; Communication; Balance: Focus; and Community; and Was Led With the Following Statement: We are Organizing for a ‘Real Voice,’ “to be Involved as a Corporate Citizen” and to Change Our Organizational Culture.  We Currently are in a Dictatorship That Has Beautiful Constitutions That are Just Mere Words.  We Respect the Mission of the PPCWNY and We Know the Importance of the Work We Do.  We are Willing to Work as Hard as Ever, But it’s Vital to Recognize and Acknowledge Our Efforts.  We are the Cornerstones of This Organization and the Most Valuable Resource, and We Should be Treated as Such.  We Have Strived for Improvements in the Past Without Success and it is Clear the Only Way We Can Make a Real, Lasting Change is by Standing Together With the Strength and Unity of the CWA.  It is Through the Solidarity of PPCWNY Workers That We Will Be Able to Do What’s Best for Our Families, Our Clients, This Agency and Ourselves.”  (See Copy Below)

The Workers’ Mission Statement is Signed by Nearly 40 Workers, Including Nurses Stein and Perry.

The Unionization Campaign at Planned Parenthood of Central New York Started in Mid June, CWA Local 1168 Director of Mobilizing and Organizing Weisansal and Converso, a Registered Nurse (RN) Who Serves as Political/Legislative Coordinator for the CWA District 1 Healthcare Council, Told WNYLaborToday.com.

“We Received Inquiries About (‘Going Union’) From Their Employees in Batavia and Syracuse on the Same Day,” Converso said.  “They Talked About Their Working Conditions and How Management Had (Arbitrarily) Changed Hours at Their Clinics, Took Away Job Titles and Told Them That if They Didn’t Reapply for Certain Job Titles, They Wouldn’t Have a Job.  Management Was Also Dictating How Many Hours People Would Work, Whether They Would Be Full Time or Part Time.  They Also Changed the Number of Hours Worked in a Week So They Wouldn’t Have to Pay Overtime.”

Local 1168’s Weisansal said it was the Planned Parenthood Workers Across Central New York Who Went Ahead and “Got (Union Authorization) Cards (Signed) On Their Own, Which Was Very Interesting.”  In Fact, he added, More Than 70% of the Central New York Workforce Signed the Cards. 

However, Weisansal Tells WNYLaborToday.com the CWA Understands 10 Planned Parenthood Employees Have Recently Left the Organization, Apparently Fed Up With Management’s Stance on So Many Issues That Their Workers Felt Need Attention.

The Central New York Planned Parenthood Employees Held a Day of Action Late Last Week on July 17th, Wearing Red CWA Shirts, as well as Other CWA-Branded Items While at Work (See Photos Below/Courtesy of CWA Local 1168).  “It Was Like They’d Already Won and Had a Union,” Weisansal said.

While the Planned Parenthood Workers and CWA Local 1168 Reps are Encountering Resistance From Central New York’s Planned Parenthood Chief Executive Officer Karen Nelson, Both Weisansal and Converso are Hopeful That Because of the Great Number of Signed Union Authorization Cards and the Outpouring of Support for the Workers to Unionize Will Sway Management Into Allowing its Workers to Become Union and Therefore, Bypass the Need to Hold an Election.

Political Support for the Workers’ Unionizing Effort Has Also Come in the Form of Letters From U.S. Congressional Representatives Brian Higgins of Buffalo and Louise Slaughter of Rochester, as well as From a Number of State Elected Representatives, Including: Assemblyman Sean Ryan and Crystal Peoples-Stokes and Senator Tim Kennedy, All of Buffalo; and Assemblyman Sam Roberts and Senator David Valesky, Both of Syracuse, CWA Officials Told Your On-Line Labor Newspaper.

“They Want to be Represented,” CWA’s Converso said.  “They Want Dignity and Respect.  They Really ‘Love’ Their Mission and Their Clients, and They Want to Provide Health Care to Women - Many of Whom are Using Planned Parenthood as Their ‘Primary’ Care Provider.”

Nurse Perry - Whose Been Employed by Planned Parenthood for Nine Years in Both Batavia and Rochester, says She and Her Co-Workers are “United and Committed to Doing This.”

“(Management Needs) to Respect Us as Professionals and the Communication Has to Improve So We Can All Have a ‘Balanced Life,’” she said.  “We’re Pushing So Hard Right Now That We Can’t Afford to Lose Any More Staff.  In Fact, We’ve Been Closed Some Days Because We Don’t Have Enough Staff (to Cover Hours and Clients).  I’m Optimistic We’ll Get This Done.  We ‘Love’ What We Do and We Work Hard, But We Want to be Treated With Dignity.”

A Determined RN Stein said She “Loves Her Job” and Her Work, But Noted She “Grew Up in the Sixties” and Learned That at a Young Age “You Have to Fight for What You Want.”