Wichita abortion clinic workers join same union as city and school district employees | Opinion
In 2022, Kansas voters shocked the nation when they became the first in America to uphold abortion rights, after the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the landmark Roe v. Wade decision that had protected abortion access for nearly half a century.
And now, another right is coming into play — the right of workers to organize — at the region’s largest provider of abortion services, the Trust Women Clinic.
Following an employee vote on Thursday, the Service Employees International Union — the same union that represents city of Wichita and Wichita school district employees — will be the official bargaining agent for workers at Trust Women.
Eighteen workers were eligible to vote on unionization. They went 16-0 for the union, with two not voting, said SEIU business representative Esau Freeman.
It represents a new phase for the SEIU locally, but not a huge stretch, Freeman said.
“Some of our units over in Missouri take care of health care workers,” Freeman said. “There’s also an SEIU nurses’ union. A lot of them are up in Kansas City area. This was just something local that was within our reach. And we’ve got several small units like Rolling Hills Zoo and the Eisenhower (Presidential) Library and Museum in Abilene.”
Trust Women is at the same location and is the successor to the east Wichita clinic formerly run by the late Dr. George Tiller, who was gunned down in his church by an antiabortion fanatic in 2009.
By nature, the clinic has always been a stressful place. The Tiller killing was actually the second time he’d been shot, and last year, a bomb scare shut down the clinic and the Kellogg Freeway that runs by it. Security is tight because of the omnipresent threat of additional antiabortion terrorism.
Beyond that, there have been internal issues. In April, the clinic’s board temporarily suspended patient services and fired co-executive directors Schaunta James-Boyd and Rebecca Tong. That led to a series of firings and resignations-in-protest, including the medical director and several doctors.
Meanwhile, the clinic has seen increased patient load from states that passed or began enforcing draconian abortion bans after Roe was overturned.
“A lot of times we are the closest option, especially for Oklahoma and Texas,” said Aly McKinney Lloyd, a clinic employee and union supporter. “They’ve had to travel five, six, seven, eight hours just to have this appointment. And so a lot of them are very emotional, you know. They’re tired. I mean, it’s already difficult to begin with, and then having to travel out of state on top of that, just, you know, adds extra stress for them. And so it’s like we all kind of feel that as well.”
She said communication went downhill after the shakeup at the top.
“A lot of my co-workers have certifications, credentials. They are the ones dealing with everything, day-to-day, hour-to-hour, dealing with the patients in person. They should absolutely some say, some influence over the things that are being implemented on them, instead of having some executive just passing down all of these things and implementing them without considering their opinions at all.”
What finally jump-started the union drive was a major change in scheduling, handed down from above.
The clinic is staffed almost exclusively by doctors from out of state who rotate in and out.
Employees were told they’d have to work more weekend shifts to accommodate the doctors’ schedule preferences, without extra pay, McKinney Lloyd said.
“That’s fine every once in a while, but they were trying to say, ‘Oh, you’re gonna work like, two or three weekends, back-to-back.’ And people are like, well, you know, we have lives, we have families, we have kids, we have pets.”
Talking to her and Freeman, it’s clear that the workers are dedicated professionals performing a difficult and controversial service because they believe it’s necessary.
But the all-female workforce felt like their bosses weren’t listening to them. Now they’re going to have to.
The next major step will be negotiating a contract. And the time has come for Trust Women to live up to its name within its own organization.
This story was originally published December 13, 2024 at 9:36 AM.
