The Planned Parenthood abortion chain is no fan of President Donald Trump, but it will take his help when it’s convenient.
Currently, the abortion chain’s Colorado branch is fighting against employees who want to unionize. Breitbart reports Planned Parenthood of the Rocky Mountains recently asked a Trump labor board to block the local union under SEIU.
The employees organized in December as SEIU Local 105 amid complaints about long hours, heavy employee turnover rates and pay below $15 per hour, according to the report. With a CEO who once made nearly $1 million a year and a record $1.46 billion in revenue last year, it is not hard to imagine why Planned Parenthood employees want better wages and working conditions.
However, the abortion chain’s Colorado affiliate recently challenged the formation of the local union through the National Labor Relations Board, which is made up of members appointed by the Trump administration.
Here’s more from the report:
In April, in the case of Rocky Mountain Planned Parenthood Inc. v. SEIU, Trump-appointed NLRB members Marvin Kaplan and Bill Emanuel voted with Planned Parenthood’s management, while Obama-appointed NLRB member Lauren McFerran sided with the workers and against the abortion provider, which wanted its workers to organize across three states instead of its 14 Rocky Mountain clinic sites.
The union and McFerran claimed, however, organizing across three states would prove an extremely difficult feat in that workers in Colorado, Nevada, and New Mexico would need to rally.
The local SEIU bargaining team accused Planned Parenthood of trying to sabotage its own employees’ efforts to unionize.
“Every step of the way, PPRM leadership has opposed us in our efforts to form a union,” the group said in a statement last week. “First, leadership rejected our efforts to set up a union vote, then, they organized against us as we successfully organized the votes we needed to form a union.”
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The abortion chain denied this.
“We are not currently opposing efforts to organize our affiliate; we have asked the NLRB to consider whether all of our employees should be able to participate,” spokesperson Whitney Phillips said.
Amanda Martin, who works for the abortion group, challenged Planned Parenthood to make good on the liberal issues that it claims to champion.
“If PPRM wants to lift the voices of all of its employees, then it needs to prove it by stopping its effort to silence those that have decided to speak up and organize,” she said, according to the Intercept. “Now that these Colorado clinics have organized locally, there is a clear path for other workers in our organization to come together in the way they best see fit, and we will support their efforts. All we want is to have a voice in our workplace. It comes down to the dignity and respect that all workers deserve.”
This civil war between Planned Parenthood and its employees indicates the abortion chain is more divided and chaotic than it presents itself to be. What’s more, this fight suggests Planned Parenthood does not really care about politically liberal issues involving worker’s rights and fair wages. It just pretends to care to make itself look good.
