Grace Larson is a licensed practical nurse who worked for Planned Parenthood North Central States (PPNCS), at clinics in both rural and urban areas in Minnesota, until very recently. On March 28, she was fired by PPNCS for allegedly engaging in retaliatory actions against a coworker.
The accusation stems from an email Larson sent to an outside organization on March 13, on her own time and from her personal email account, warning them about a PPNCS employee whom the organization had hired to do some training around healthy relationships.
Larson described the coworker in question as an “accused abuser,” and said that she believes the other organization had a right to be notified about this. In an April 3 press conference about her firing, Larson referred to her email as a form of whistleblowing.
She said she was fired outright, without any further information about how her actions as a private citizen could be used as grounds for termination. But Larson is not only a nurse for PPNCS; she is also a union organizer.
PPNCS employees voted to form a union in May 2022, by joining the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Healthcare of Minnesota and Iowa. The National Labor Relations Review Board certified the election in July of that year.
In June 2022, right in between these two crucial steps towards unionization at PPNCS, the U.S. Supreme Court handed down the Dobbs v. Jackson decision that removed federal protection for abortion rights and immediately jeopardized access to reproductive healthcare for millions of Americans.
PPNCS operates twenty-eight clinics in the Upper Midwest, including in Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota. Numbers cited by PPNCS state that the organization provides health care to approximately 100,000 people annually and education services to more than 55,000.
Frontline healthcare workers at PPNCS have become more vital than ever. But should their labor have to come at the expense of their right to unionize?
The Dobbs decision reversed the protections offered by Roe v. Wade and immediately threw the primacy of both Minnesota, where abortion rights have remained intact, and PPNCS into sharp relief.
As soon as the Dobbs decision went into effect, for example, North Dakota’s only abortion provider—a clinic based in Fargo—was forced to shut down and move across the border to Moorhead, Minnesota. PPNCS announced that it would step in to provide abortions, in case the Fargo clinic had been unable to move.
Abortion rights remain under attack in Nebraska, Iowa, and South Dakota as well. This has contributed to Minnesota’s presence as an “access island,” as noted by ProPublica in 2022, for out-of-state patients in need of abortions and other reproductive healthcare services.
Against this restrictive backdrop, it seems clear that frontline healthcare workers at PPNCS have become more vital than ever. But should their labor have to come at the expense of their right to unionize?
Larson alleges that she has been disciplined by PPNCS for being a union organizer and leader, rather than for violating company policy. She serves in an elected position on her union’s bargaining team, which is currently attempting to negotiate their first contract with PPNCS.
Phillip Cryan is the executive vice president of SEIU Minnesota & Iowa and is serving as the lead negotiator for the PPNCS contract. He noted in an April 3 press conference that, before Larson was fired, PPNCS put a new policy in place, stating that any member of the union’s bargaining team could be fired at will.
This was the policy used to push Larson out of her job, where she says she was especially proud of the work she’s done with Black and brown patients. These patients have typically had less access to high quality healthcare—especially when it comes to pregnancy and birth-related care—and Larson says she has received notes from those she’s worked with, telling her that she “single-handedly changed their healthcare experience.”
The transformative work she’s done with patients wasn’t enough to keep Larson employed. Cyran likened PPNCS’s actions to the union-busting tactics employed by far larger, far less mission-driven companies, such as Amazon and Starbucks.
Linking PPNCS to these corporations might seem jarring considering the parent organization’s reputation as a “thorn in the side” of anti-choice politicians and activists, who have long sought to defund and otherwise shut down Planned Parenthood. Still, the comparison seems valid.
Larson has described a toxic work environment at PPNCS, both before and after the unionization vote passed. In a recent article in Jacobin written by Anne Rumberger, an abortion rights activist based in New York City, Larson provided more details about her experience with PPNCS. After just six months on the job, she told Rumberger, she was tasked with training new hires, given the organization’s high turnover rate.
Employees at other Planned Parenthood affiliates have also expressed frustration with their working conditions, leading to union drives in Massachusetts, Oregon, and Texas. Many staffers describe having to ricochet from the COVID-19 crisis to the frightening new realities brought on by Roe v. Wade’s repeal, without enough support, compensation, or recognition.
As Rumberger wrote, “In our post-Roe world, with shrinking access to abortion care and added stress on the remaining providers, the well-being of workers is intimately tied to the well-being of patients.”
Too much is at stake here, as the attacks on reproductive healthcare continue to mount. Larson wants her job back; PPNCS should take her concerns seriously and stop engaging in union-busting tactics immediately.