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Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

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Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

OR Planned Parenthood Workers Ratify First Union Contract

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Wednesday, March 23, 2022   

Caregivers at an Oregon Planned Parenthood clinic have approved their first union contract.

About 60 workers at Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon are members of Service Employees International Union Local 49, and have agreed to a three-year contract.

Lindsay, a health care assistant at the facility who was part of the bargaining team, said the push to unionize began during COVID, when many people ended up working from home.

"It has been really frustrating, really empowering, really rewarding, really exhausting, and of course the biggest, most joyful part was upon ratification," Lindsay explained. "Many of us were in tears about it."

Workers will receive a 15% pay increase when the contract is settled, and annual across-the-board raises. It also guarantees an $18 per hour minimum wage. Other benefits include paid employee insurance premium coverage and matching retirement contributions.

Lindsay contended it is important for workers to feel supported.

"When the employees are taken care of and really supported, they give better patient care," Lindsay asserted/ "I just see this as really affecting southwestern Oregon in positive ways into the future."

Lindsay added a co-worker, who has been at the organization for 22 years, was her inspiration to get the contract done. She said Planned Parenthood of Southwestern Oregon was the first affiliate to recognize a union.

Disclosure: SEIU Local 49 contributes to our fund for reporting on Livable Wages/Working Families, and Social Justice. If you would like to help support news in the public interest, click here.

References:  
SEIU Local 49 2022

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