Working people across the United States regularly step up to help out our friends, neighbors and communities during these trying times. In our Service & Solidarity Spotlight series, we’ll showcase one of these stories every day. Here’s today’s story.
Workers at Planned Parenthood’s Kalamazoo Health Center became the first Planned Parenthood site in West Michigan to unionize. They will be represented by United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW) Local 951. They will start negotiating their first contract and they say union representation is a step in the right direction toward a lasting career.
“I was happy to have a hand in organizing our clinic and to put my ‘yes’ vote in the ballot box for representation with the UFCW,” said Deedee Rounds, medical assistant at Kalamazoo Planned Parenthood. “My personal motivation was to strengthen the position of working-class people in my workplace. Without working people, the crops don’t grow, the trains don’t run, and in this instance, the clinics don’t open.”