Speaker 1: Welcome to it could happen here a podcast about things
Speaker 1: falling apart and how to put them back together again. Now,
Speaker 1: a thing that has fallen apart that we have talked
Speaker 1: about at length before is the protection of the right
Speaker 1: to abortions, previously enshrined in Roe v. Wade and no
Speaker 1: longer enshrined in that. And we've come at this from
Speaker 1: a number of angles, but one angle that we've neglected
Speaker 1: so far is is the labor angle. Um. And Okay,
Speaker 1: So for reproductive autonomy to exist, right, you need healthcare,
Speaker 1: and healthcare, especiallyunder capitalism, requires labor. And and that labor
Speaker 1: isn't done by you know, abstract organizations. It's done by
Speaker 1: workers who are facing not only sort of the mall
Speaker 1: of the death of row, but the in transient and
Speaker 1: often the belligerency of the room bosses. And here to
Speaker 1: talk with us about that is Crystal Grabowski and Elizabeth
Speaker 1: Vella Nuevo from the wonderfully named UEI Local six nine six, um,
Speaker 1: And I'm gonna I'm going to read a pseudo legal
Speaker 1: disclaimer here, which is that they are not representing Planned
Speaker 1: parent who they do work at Planned Parenthood. They are
Speaker 1: not representing Planned parenthood. They're they're representing themselves as individuals
Speaker 1: and our local union, yes, proud members of Local six
Speaker 1: nine six, impeccably named union, purposefully named right. Well, they
Speaker 1: were like, you have to choose a a number that
Speaker 1: starts with six, and then we just looked at each
Speaker 1: other and we had that moment where it's like yes,
Speaker 1: and then we can add another one and it'll be
Speaker 1: a good time, fun little threesome. He'll be safe. That's good.
Speaker 1: So sorry, round one of pro union propaganda joining you
Speaker 1: did and YouTube can be in in union Local sixty
Speaker 1: nine or what if they told you the number can
Speaker 1: start with four, like you know, yeah, boom. There's just
Speaker 1: so many options. I'm sure there's other fun numbers that
Speaker 1: besides those, but you have the entire world in front
Speaker 1: of you. Yeah, we could have done six, you could
Speaker 1: do like boom. Can you imagine if we did six six?
Speaker 1: We could not. We had that choice and we went
Speaker 1: with six nine six. Sexual Health Organization is to prove
Speaker 1: that workers will always make the right decision. This is
Speaker 1: the power of the union. We can evaluate these decisions
Speaker 1: when when it's important and do the right there. So yeah,
Speaker 1: thank thank you, thank you, to you so much for
Speaker 1: for coming on the show. Thank you for having us.
Speaker 1: We're both super excited. Yeah, thanks for tighting us a
Speaker 1: slowly abortion workers So I'm gonna I'm gonna dispute heavily
Speaker 1: with the term slowly, like y'all are the people who
Speaker 1: make all of this possible. So yeah, yeah, And and
Speaker 1: now now having said all of this, I'm about I'm
Speaker 1: going to ask you a very depression question, which we have.
Speaker 1: We've asked a lot of the people who've talked about
Speaker 1: abortion access, uh like who work in abortion access stuff,
Speaker 1: this question, But I think you two had a very
Speaker 1: different experience of it. Um. What was it like on
Speaker 1: the day when Roe died? Do you want to go first, Crystal? Um? Yeah.
Speaker 1: I've talked about this a lot because I'm getting asked
Speaker 1: a lot, and it's I'm happy to talk about it, um,
Speaker 1: which is I'm actually like, it's been hard to listen
Speaker 1: to other people talk about it because then I start
Speaker 1: getting in my fields. But like when I'm talking about
Speaker 1: and I'm kind of like just processing it, it's probably
Speaker 1: healthy for me, somebody would say. But it was incredibly traumatic,
Speaker 1: and it's been incredibly traumatic. Um, since the fall of
Speaker 1: Ruby Wade and the Dobs decision. And I'm saying this, well, like, well,
Speaker 1: knowing that we all knew it was coming, it was
Speaker 1: it was a given, and it wasn't surprising. And there's
Speaker 1: just something about knowing that it's been coming for months
Speaker 1: and years that like just it just did nothing to
Speaker 1: actually inform you, like what would it be like? Um,
Speaker 1: But it was like a It was like a tidal
Speaker 1: wave crashing and just like sweeping you away. And we're
Speaker 1: still swept away. Um. The only language that I can
Speaker 1: find that's appropriate is like natural disaster language, and I
Speaker 1: just I keep repeating it and saying, like it's like
Speaker 1: a hurricane, It's like a tidal way. But that is
Speaker 1: the those are the words that are most fitting to me,
Speaker 1: like emotionally and just in terms of like the violence
Speaker 1: and the that is that you that people are experiencing. Um,
Speaker 1: and just the emotional and mental and bodily harm is
Speaker 1: equitable to a natural disaster. Yeah. And I think during
Speaker 1: one of our debriefs, during a particular really difficult day,
Speaker 1: this was pretty um Row. We were talking about how
Speaker 1: sometimes it's really hard for us when we can see
Speaker 1: these things coming and yet there's nothing we can really
Speaker 1: do about it. And I know that we talked about
Speaker 1: how it felt like we were just tied to a
Speaker 1: train track, watching and waiting for that train to just
Speaker 1: come and hit us, and then when it did, it
Speaker 1: was just it just knocked I think the wind out
Speaker 1: of all of us. Um, I think we all cried
Speaker 1: for sure, that we all cried, and um, and I'm
Speaker 1: not even like I don't know, like I feel like
Speaker 1: I am. I'm emotional and I am a crier, but
Speaker 1: a whole I didn't think that I would sob immediately
Speaker 1: the second I saw the news. And then I always
Speaker 1: knew we were going to get a lot more calls
Speaker 1: because um, Elizabeth and I also answered phones in the
Speaker 1: abortion clinic, and I was like, Okay, we're gonna get
Speaker 1: way more calls. But like, you don't know what that
Speaker 1: feels like or looks like or sounds like, like, what
Speaker 1: is it I feel like to have a hundred people
Speaker 1: calling you pretty much at the same time? What does
Speaker 1: that look like? Now? I know, and it's traumatic and
Speaker 1: it's awful, and um, it's a natural disaster, but it's
Speaker 1: a man made disaster. Actually it's not a natural disaster.
Speaker 1: We've there are people who have inflicted this upon us. Um,
Speaker 1: and now we know what it feels like, and it's
Speaker 1: sucking awful. I should have asked if I was allowed
Speaker 1: to swear. Oh yeah, I swear all the time, okay,
Speaker 1: because like I've been on podcast before where they were like, oh,
Speaker 1: we gotta edit that out, which, well, it's a fucking nightmare. Yeah,
Speaker 1: we work in healthcare. I think we swear more than
Speaker 1: the average lay man because they keep saying something out. Yeah,
Speaker 1: there's so much more to say, like yeah, please, I
Speaker 1: don't even know where to go from there. It's just yeah,
Speaker 1: it's like a never ending nightmare because like the calls
Speaker 1: started and then it's just like just just person after
Speaker 1: person after person. They driving driving two hours, three hours,
Speaker 1: four hours, five hours, coming from states that are like
Speaker 1: three states away, coming from like states in the South,
Speaker 1: people taking planes and um, people staying in hotels and
Speaker 1: we've had people pay like hundreds of dollars for an
Speaker 1: uber MHM and UM. And then just like bringing in
Speaker 1: the labor angle to as like unionized abortion workers, who
Speaker 1: you know, we have been vocal and we've been rallying
Speaker 1: and making our demands like publicly known, but we are
Speaker 1: doing this while under staffed, like skeletal crew staffing. We
Speaker 1: didn't have enough staff before row Fell and the Doobs decision,
Speaker 1: and now we just it's bare bones and it's like
Speaker 1: we are so we're taking on this title wave, this
Speaker 1: like man made title wave while just giving every last
Speaker 1: ounce of our energy. Yeah um, and doing multiple roles
Speaker 1: at once. Yeah. I don't know if you are able
Speaker 1: to tell from the fact that Crystal and I both
Speaker 1: work directly in the clinic, but we also answer calls. Um.
Speaker 1: When we signed up for our job, Um, we knew
Speaker 1: that we would be doing multiple things around the clinic,
Speaker 1: and it's just it's funny, um to not really know
Speaker 1: what that means until you start doing it. So one
Speaker 1: day you'll be holding a patient's hand while they're having
Speaker 1: this procedure done, like giving them a little baggy in
Speaker 1: case they feel sick. Um, you'll be talking to them
Speaker 1: on the phone. So some there are days where I
Speaker 1: will meet people who I've spoken to on the phone
Speaker 1: when they called to book their appointment, and it just
Speaker 1: hits me like a tidal wave because I'm like, that's
Speaker 1: the person, Like, that's this person specifically, I remember because
Speaker 1: I remember hearing the sound of their voice, and every
Speaker 1: single time they call in they are sobbing. This is
Speaker 1: a horrifying moment for them. This is a moment where
Speaker 1: they feel like trapped, They feel like they can't share
Speaker 1: with their family, with their friends. Um. Depending on what
Speaker 1: state they're from and the legalities of that state, they
Speaker 1: are even afraid to make these phone calls. Like some
Speaker 1: of the first things that patients say to us when
Speaker 1: they call it is in my is this okay? Like?
Speaker 1: Am I allowed to call you? Um? Emanuela to talk
Speaker 1: to you? Of my allowed to book an appointment? Um?
Speaker 1: What's going to happen next for me? Yeah? Because we're
Speaker 1: not lawyers, because we everything is so fluid right now,
Speaker 1: we don't have answers to give them. Um we can
Speaker 1: just say, well, you're coming to Pennsylvania and it's stillegal
Speaker 1: in Pennsylvania. So um. And then just to like paint
Speaker 1: the picture a little more too about like both the
Speaker 1: skeletal staffing and the emotional turnoil and the emotional weight
Speaker 1: of it. Um. So, the jobs decision happened on June,
Speaker 1: which was a Friday, and we're in Pennsylvania, and that
Speaker 1: evening of the evening of June a trigger man went
Speaker 1: into effect in in Ohio. It was a it's a
Speaker 1: fetal heartbeat bill, which is a deceptive language because it's
Speaker 1: not actually a heartbeat but um, but it's a it's
Speaker 1: technically a fetal heartbeat bill. And so people after six
Speaker 1: weeks um could no longer access abortion services or once
Speaker 1: any sort of like electrical impulse was detected, and everyone
Speaker 1: had their appointments canceled. So we were actually at a protest,
Speaker 1: like the staff was like at a protest that evening,
Speaker 1: um with our with our doctors, our abortion providing doctors,
Speaker 1: and the news came out like yeah, shout out to them,
Speaker 1: we love them, um, And we got the news that
Speaker 1: Ohio had just did this, and we were just like,
Speaker 1: oh my god, tomorrow because we knew the second our
Speaker 1: call center and our phone lines opened, everyone whose appointment
Speaker 1: was canceled gonna be calling us. And then we pull
Speaker 1: up the staff schedule and we're like standing in the
Speaker 1: middle of the street at a protest. We pull up
Speaker 1: the staff schedule and we're like, oh my god, there
Speaker 1: is one person schedule to answer phones right now, and
Speaker 1: it is an older woman who's been doing this since
Speaker 1: like the seventies or eighties and it's like we cannot
Speaker 1: like and we were like all as a union, like, um,
Speaker 1: we turn to each other and we're like, oh my god,
Speaker 1: this is the situation. We cannot leave her alone. Um,
Speaker 1: we've already worked our five days, we already worked our
Speaker 1: already five hours, but we are going to call ourselves
Speaker 1: into work. And like we just we were like we've
Speaker 1: notified our managers, like we're gonna come into work and
Speaker 1: we're gonna help too, answer the phones for these canceled
Speaker 1: Ohio patients. Like that was a decision that we made
Speaker 1: to work those extra that that extra time on our
Speaker 1: weekend off because it was a Saturday. But this ties
Speaker 1: into what Elizabeth was saying, where, Um, when you hear
Speaker 1: the person on the phone and then they come to you,
Speaker 1: and like it's very emotional because like you're doing your
Speaker 1: best as a health care worker to get them the
Speaker 1: health service that you have been trained to provide and
Speaker 1: that you know is very important. So knowing that we
Speaker 1: were understaffed, um, knowing that we're not making that much money,
Speaker 1: and then just being like I have to go in
Speaker 1: and be there. I can't leave my coworker alone because
Speaker 1: I love my coworker and we can't, and like, somebody
Speaker 1: has to be there for these these patients when they're calling.
Speaker 1: And if it's not going to be the employer and
Speaker 1: the bosses, then it's going to be you. And and
Speaker 1: then we we all just we did that, and then
Speaker 1: um there was another clinic day. We a lot of
Speaker 1: us arranged to come in for an extra work day
Speaker 1: because we were like, we have we have to be
Speaker 1: there for these patients. Um, so we're really giving all
Speaker 1: of our energy, and it's exhausting and traumatizing. I can't
Speaker 1: I feel like I can't say that enough. But and
Speaker 1: we need more staff, we need better wages, we need
Speaker 1: better working conditions because it's so it's like at the
Speaker 1: end of some of these days, it's like, how am
Speaker 1: I going to keep doing this? My body hurts, my
Speaker 1: brain hurts. I started having like issues with my memory
Speaker 1: where like I couldn't remember anything because my brain just
Speaker 1: gave up on retaining information. And I'm like, I think
Speaker 1: this is like a trauma response, like yeah, I'm overwhelmed
Speaker 1: system shock. I think this is one of the things
Speaker 1: you get with working for NGOs, which is that like
Speaker 1: we're doing something like this is like there is work
Speaker 1: that needs to be done, but you know, the employers
Speaker 1: not giving you the resources that is necessary to do
Speaker 1: it right. You have one person on a call line
Speaker 1: like the day after a fetal heartbeat bill goes goes
Speaker 1: into effect and and it's I don't know. It seems
Speaker 1: like one of the one of the things that's that
Speaker 1: that these NGOs do is they were you know, they
Speaker 1: make they make a mistake or they do something deliberately
Speaker 1: because they don't want to pay people and then they
Speaker 1: don't want to pay another more people, and they make
Speaker 1: you go deal with it because you know it has
Speaker 1: to get done because these people need you and that
Speaker 1: has to do it. Yeah, and that's so cross, it's disgusting.
Speaker 1: So for me, I like to equate it as kind
Speaker 1: of like being emotionally gasolt because the whole point of healthcare,
Speaker 1: and I've said this to other people in different healthcare
Speaker 1: roles that I've worked before, because as we know, health
Speaker 1: care is chronically understaffed, like there are so many like
Speaker 1: nursing shortages and things. UM is that healthcare is designed
Speaker 1: to draw people who want to help. You have these
Speaker 1: like very strong moral and emotional beliefs, UM, and we
Speaker 1: are paid to care like it is our job to
Speaker 1: care UM. And that is how they can get all
Speaker 1: of these things out of us, is because it's very
Speaker 1: easy to feel emotionally manipulated when somebody's like, well somebody
Speaker 1: has to be there for this patient, this person, UM,
Speaker 1: this like thing that can't wait UM and so a
Speaker 1: lot of us UM. Even like I said before, I
Speaker 1: worked here. At like different positions that I've held, I've
Speaker 1: been like, I will take an extra shift because somebody
Speaker 1: has to do it. And I love my job so much.
Speaker 1: I love working in healthcare. It's something I've been very
Speaker 1: passionate about since I was a small child. UM. So
Speaker 1: I for years would burn myself out and be like,
Speaker 1: I'll take the extra shift at a different position. UM.
Speaker 1: When I used to work at a care UM. I
Speaker 1: worked at an intermediate care facility for adults with intellectual
Speaker 1: physical disabilities UM for a couple of years, and I
Speaker 1: remember routinely working sixteen hour shifts like day in and
Speaker 1: day out. I think there was like six seven days
Speaker 1: a week of just doubles where I would work sixteen
Speaker 1: hour shifts. I don't think I like slept or aid
Speaker 1: or did anything UM. And then at one point, I
Speaker 1: was so burnt out that I just couldn't do it anymore.
Speaker 1: And I started to get frustrated with the people that
Speaker 1: I worked with and like the patients that I cared about.
Speaker 1: And this one particular day, I like, I noticed myself
Speaker 1: getting incredibly annoyed with everything that was like happening, like sounds,
Speaker 1: patients like just being themselves, Like I didn't, you know,
Speaker 1: take it out on anything or anyone. I just noticed
Speaker 1: myself getting like slightly more irritated, and then I was like,
Speaker 1: this is not sustainable. I can't keep doing this UM.
Speaker 1: And I compared this recent change posted the Doobs Decision
Speaker 1: to what it was like when I also used to
Speaker 1: work for distributing medical equipment to hospices. UM. It felt
Speaker 1: like every single moment was an emergency that I just
Speaker 1: did not have the resources to be able to UM
Speaker 1: help with. Because on one end of the line, you
Speaker 1: have somebody that is having this emergency, and then on
Speaker 1: the other end of the line, there's another person pulling
Speaker 1: you because they're also having an emergency, and so you
Speaker 1: have to kind of weigh which one of these patients
Speaker 1: like needs you the most right now, and which one
Speaker 1: of those can you reasonably help. It's like that psychology
Speaker 1: psychology puzzle where they're like, um, if you move the
Speaker 1: thing on the try, Yeah, the trolley problem where like
Speaker 1: one of these people will die or seven people will die,
Speaker 1: and you have to decide which one of those you're
Speaker 1: gonna pull. Yeah, there's only so much that we can
Speaker 1: give as healthcare workers, as abortion workers, as reproductive health workers. UM,
Speaker 1: there's only so many hours in a day. And as
Speaker 1: much as we want to keep giving, for us to
Speaker 1: keep pouring out of an empty cup, it's just not
Speaker 1: sustainable for ourselves. Like I know, many of us have
Speaker 1: lost sleep, many of us have stopped like being able
Speaker 1: to focus on anything outside of work because as soon
Speaker 1: as like you turn on the news or you open
Speaker 1: the phone or you like open up Twitter, there's more
Speaker 1: and more and more information because everything is consistently changing
Speaker 1: all of the time. And like, um, Western Virginia is
Speaker 1: currently having like there, um yeah, so that's new. And
Speaker 1: we had a couple of calls come in from UM
Speaker 1: and we had Kentucky. Yeah, so that was new. UM.
Speaker 1: And we're just starting to like really have a good
Speaker 1: pattern of resources for patients coming in from like Ohio,
Speaker 1: UM and now we're like, okay, well what about Kentucky.
Speaker 1: So we just like we feel like there's just one
Speaker 1: like hole in the dam that we put our finger
Speaker 1: on and then another one shows up that at some
Speaker 1: point we just have to know that we've done our best, um,
Speaker 1: and then it's okay to take a second to rest
Speaker 1: um and do you know, go home and maybe like
Speaker 1: watch TV or listen to a podcast. Yeah, not about abortion. Yeah,
Speaker 1: forget about abortion for two seconds, and because we will
Speaker 1: inevitably have to do it again tomorrow. This reminds me
Speaker 1: a lot of Um, I did an interview like I
Speaker 1: don't actually it'll be a couple of weeks, I guess
Speaker 1: by when this comes out. With some organizers who were
Speaker 1: like trying to do like relief and aid for the migrants.
Speaker 1: You're getting bus to d C from Texas, I think
Speaker 1: you talk to and it was like they were talking
Speaker 1: about exactly the same thing where it's like we have
Speaker 1: to do this, we have to do this because otherwise
Speaker 1: no one's gonna help these people. But like at a
Speaker 1: certain point it's like everyone has COVID, like we just
Speaker 1: can't and it I don't know, it's I think it's
Speaker 1: especially frustrating that this is happening because like those people
Speaker 1: were just like they have no resources, right, it's just
Speaker 1: a bunch of people who could drink vitual aly thing,
Speaker 1: but like this is planned parenthood. Like they have resources
Speaker 1: and they're not they're not doing this, and they're they're
Speaker 1: doing this. I talked to a nurse who's a friend
Speaker 1: of mine a long time ago on this show, and
Speaker 1: he talked, you know, he was in nurseting COVID. He's
Speaker 1: gotten COVID twice I think, and like, you know, he
Speaker 1: was talking about how like, yeah, he he said to
Speaker 1: be like thing I've always remember, it was like I've
Speaker 1: seen people die because I've seen people die because of
Speaker 1: staffing decisions, and it's like it's this it's this moral
Speaker 1: blackmail thing where it's like, in order to expect this
Speaker 1: thing needs to be done, we're not going to actually
Speaker 1: supervisee you with enough resources to do it, and we're
Speaker 1: going to make you responsible for the consequences of our actions.
Speaker 1: And yeah, it's grotesque. Yeah something that um really it's
Speaker 1: just kind of like part of the trauma for the workers.
Speaker 1: And I'm honestly for the patients and for everyone in
Speaker 1: our communities because this impact literally everyone is um just
Speaker 1: like turning, Like we do turn people away because pregnancy
Speaker 1: is a time sensitive issue and you know, you have
Speaker 1: to get in in a certain number of weeks in
Speaker 1: order to get you know, the type of procedure that
Speaker 1: you want, in order to get a procedure at all.
Speaker 1: And these are people that are often parents, the majority
Speaker 1: of people who have abortions or parents, um, and they
Speaker 1: have children, and they have jobs or they don't have
Speaker 1: like PTO, and they live four hours away. So it's like,
Speaker 1: how am I going to get to this appointment? So
Speaker 1: there's so many people that we have to refer, so
Speaker 1: it's it's so much on your soul to be on
Speaker 1: the phones and you speak to mother after mother, like
Speaker 1: a single mother or somebody who lost a partner or
Speaker 1: they are you know, um, they got evicted, and you're
Speaker 1: referring them to Detroit, which isn't also four or five
Speaker 1: hours away, and just to refer people to say I
Speaker 1: can't help you, try calling this place. And to do
Speaker 1: that like multiple times in a row every day, and
Speaker 1: then you're like you're working seven hour days. It is
Speaker 1: really soul crushing because it feels like and like you
Speaker 1: tell yourself like it's my you know, we don't have
Speaker 1: the resources, we don't have the staff, we weren't prepared
Speaker 1: for this crisis. It's not on me. But it's very
Speaker 1: hard not to feel awful when you are turning people
Speaker 1: away because you don't I don't know any I've probably
Speaker 1: turned like probably over a hundred people away on the
Speaker 1: phones and told them who to call. I don't know
Speaker 1: if they reach those places. I don't know if they
Speaker 1: called those places. For all I know, they continue to
Speaker 1: hire risk pregnancy, and they might suffer health consequences or
Speaker 1: things that debilitate them for the rest of their life,
Speaker 1: things that make the children's lives worse. And I have
Speaker 1: no have knowing. So it's just very traumatic to constantly
Speaker 1: be hanging up on the phone with people and just
Speaker 1: like sending them into like just a desert. I think
Speaker 1: the hardest part two is that these phone calls aren't
Speaker 1: like two seconds long. They're not two minutes when we
Speaker 1: tell when we answer the phones. Abortion appointments take about
Speaker 1: fifteen to twenty minutes to schedule, So this is a
Speaker 1: half an hour that you are getting to know an individual.
Speaker 1: A person. They tell you everything about their lives. They
Speaker 1: tell you exactly what they're feeling, what they're afraid of,
Speaker 1: what they're going through with their families, like um, what
Speaker 1: their financial situation is like. And then at the end
Speaker 1: when you tell them or at the beginning, which I
Speaker 1: do often just to let them know what they're getting
Speaker 1: themselves into. When you tell them that you're booking like
Speaker 1: three weeks out, four weeks out, you can just hear
Speaker 1: it in their voice that they are so scared and
Speaker 1: so desperate and there's nothing you can do about it
Speaker 1: because there's just not enough of us. There's not enough
Speaker 1: planet days, there's not enough hours in the day to
Speaker 1: see all of these patients. There is so much red
Speaker 1: tape that these patients have to go through to even
Speaker 1: get to this appointment. There's a twenty four our phone
Speaker 1: consent in the state of Pennsylvania. UM. If they miss that,
Speaker 1: they can't be seen. And these are often like um.
Speaker 1: Depending on the time of the phone call. Some people
Speaker 1: work multiple jobs, they're like sleep, they can't make the
Speaker 1: phone call, they're sick, they don't have working cell phones,
Speaker 1: or they're in a yeah, there in a situation where
Speaker 1: they're like have intimate partner violence, so they can't be
Speaker 1: on the phone for that long without risking their personal safety.
Speaker 1: And it's just really traumatizing. And I know that it
Speaker 1: really common on the left and with like pro abortion
Speaker 1: people to say like you can't stop abortion, you can
Speaker 1: only staff save abortion. And I I totally support the
Speaker 1: sentiment behind that, because people are going to get abortions
Speaker 1: no matter what. But people also need to think about
Speaker 1: the people who give up, because I have when I
Speaker 1: have been on the phone with someone and heard them
Speaker 1: give up. Yeah, and it's it's it's it's traumatizing because
Speaker 1: like you know that you gave them the information that
Speaker 1: broke them where they were just like when I'm like, okay,
Speaker 1: you have to wait four weeks, you have to drive
Speaker 1: four hours, you have to do this, you have to
Speaker 1: pay this, you have to do that, and then just
Speaker 1: for them to say, I'm sorry, I don't want to
Speaker 1: waste your time anymore. I just can't do this much
Speaker 1: right now. It's just too much. And just to hear
Speaker 1: they're just resignation because you know, I think I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, working in jobs, you might have heard people
Speaker 1: just like reach that moment where they hit their point,
Speaker 1: um whatever they're breaking point might be whatever the con
Speaker 1: text is, whatever the topic is. But like when it's
Speaker 1: your life and it's your health and it's your family
Speaker 1: and they're just like, this is my breaking point and
Speaker 1: witnessing and that that does happen. And it's a tragedy
Speaker 1: every time that somebody abandons what they really want and
Speaker 1: their health and their well being and um, and it
Speaker 1: does happen. And that's why this is a tragedy that
Speaker 1: needs to stop. And I don't know when it's going
Speaker 1: to stop, because it just kind of seems like it's
Speaker 1: going to keep happening and keep going and going and going,
Speaker 1: in which case the trauma is going to like move.
Speaker 1: Right now, we're like bearing the brunt of it, but
Speaker 1: it's gonna like radiate from us in our patients and
Speaker 1: we're going to see the ripple effects across the whole country,
Speaker 1: generational trauma that's going to continue for multiple decades. Yeah. Yeah.
Speaker 1: And it's i mean, just on a basic level, it's
Speaker 1: not fair that even you have to deal with this
Speaker 1: like this. This shouldn't be happening at all like that.
Speaker 1: And it's it's that it's that like all of the
Speaker 1: evil of the American settler state falling on like a
Speaker 1: bunch of people who have nothing and then a bunch
Speaker 1: of workers who are expected to show up and have
Speaker 1: to deal with all of their all of their trauma
Speaker 1: to every day and it's just like a trauma to loser. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and it's like flags and um. And then we had
Speaker 1: a union rally recently and uh, we were very open
Speaker 1: and talking about how a lot of us work two
Speaker 1: jobs and and we have staff members who donate plasma,
Speaker 1: so it's like we're doing this on top of a
Speaker 1: second job and donating are like bodily fluids. I spoke
Speaker 1: at this rally and I was like, we're literally giving
Speaker 1: our flash blood and tears to this whole thing. Um,
Speaker 1: because it's just we love it. We love all of
Speaker 1: our patients, We care about the work. We really want
Speaker 1: to make sure that our patients are going to be okay.
Speaker 1: And I think that's why we do it, and also
Speaker 1: how we can justify feeling this way day day in
Speaker 1: and day out. I wanna, I think move from this
Speaker 1: to talking about the contract negotiation process, because like, okay,
Speaker 1: it is not okay for anyone to have like a
Speaker 1: fourteen month long contract negotiation process. It is especially not
Speaker 1: okay for you to have to do this, so yeah,
Speaker 1: can we can we talk about what plant like what
Speaker 1: planned parish has been doing and would be better at
Speaker 1: answering this because she's on our bargaining committee. I'm on
Speaker 1: the bargaining team, yam. I've been doing this for fourteen
Speaker 1: months and like just oh god, I'm so sick of
Speaker 1: these meetings. I'm so sick of them, sick of their
Speaker 1: talking to their lawyer. Um, it's been long been just
Speaker 1: um really just dragging themselves. It's like carrying a dead body.
Speaker 1: It's like like it's like come on, come on, are
Speaker 1: you are you okay? We're gonna We're gonna get there,
Speaker 1: you know, Like I'm We're just like dragging them and
Speaker 1: they are afraid of everything. Everything is we gotta see,
Speaker 1: we gotta check, we gotta we gotta look into it.
Speaker 1: And then you never hear back, or maybe you hear
Speaker 1: back like three months four months later. Um, they constantly
Speaker 1: want to bring in a mediator constantly, and it's like
Speaker 1: there's nothing to mediate, Like what are we going to immediate?
Speaker 1: You telling us that you gotta back to us, like
Speaker 1: what's their tom mediate there? Um? And they're like it
Speaker 1: will move it along. And it's like yes, because they're
Speaker 1: doing the job for you. We want you to do it.
Speaker 1: We want you to have answers, you to figure it out.
Speaker 1: You're the bosses, you make the money, you're the one
Speaker 1: running the organization. Um. Sorry, I start getting salty the
Speaker 1: bark team as has um. Being on the bargaining team
Speaker 1: has really nurtured my rage. Um. It's been very exhausting.
Speaker 1: And I know we're going to win a good contract
Speaker 1: because we are badasses and I think we're really strong
Speaker 1: union and really strong team. Um, and we need we
Speaker 1: need a livable wage because we're we're getting pommelled. So UM,
Speaker 1: it's been really frustrating. I guess it's like in short,
Speaker 1: it's really drawn out, frustrating, disrespectful. I feel like my
Speaker 1: time has been disrespected. You know, I turn up every day,
Speaker 1: um for for my employer in the clinic. I'm an
Speaker 1: excellent worker and uh and they just waste like two
Speaker 1: three hours of my evening constantly. I could have been
Speaker 1: on my porch drinking tea or something, I don't know,
Speaker 1: something relaxing. Yeah. And I guess, like any other person,
Speaker 1: like like every every day that they don't like sign
Speaker 1: a contract is another day they get to get away
Speaker 1: with not paying you, not bringing more staff, and it's
Speaker 1: and they're constantly trying to get delay contract negotiations to
Speaker 1: where they're like, oh, if you do this, we can
Speaker 1: We'll give you a couple of pennies and then we
Speaker 1: won't make any you won't be able to make any
Speaker 1: economic changes until the next fiscal year. And it's like,
Speaker 1: do you think I want to wait till next July?
Speaker 1: I have a life plans. Yeah, I mean I think
Speaker 1: we've talked about on the show before that like one
Speaker 1: of the one of the most common ways that one
Speaker 1: of the most common ways that unions fall apart, and
Speaker 1: one of the things that corporations do and n g
Speaker 1: o s due to crush them is by trying to
Speaker 1: make sure that the first contract fails. And yeah, it's
Speaker 1: a union busting thing. And it's grotesque, especially that it's
Speaker 1: like okay, like with capitalist firms, like yeah, you expect
Speaker 1: them to be union busting, right, like that that's their job.
Speaker 1: Their job is to ruthlessly specially, but it's like this
Speaker 1: is an NGO, Like their job is to provide health
Speaker 1: care for people. They're supposed to be oppressive organization. They're
Speaker 1: still doing this and it's I don't know, it seems
Speaker 1: just really grim. Um it is grim and it doesn't
Speaker 1: give a lot of hope too, I think just everyone
Speaker 1: living in this in this country because it's like, okay,
Speaker 1: so there's been a a uh, I was gonna say attack,
Speaker 1: but like attack doesn't feel appropriate. Like they have gutted
Speaker 1: abortion access, hurting everybody, UM, causing like violence to people.
Speaker 1: And who do you look to? So you would think
Speaker 1: that you would look to these progressive abortion related organizations
Speaker 1: like Planned Parenthood, National Abortion Federation, UM, narrow, but all
Speaker 1: of them have nothing to give and nothing there. They're
Speaker 1: you You only hear bad news. You hear them shutting down,
Speaker 1: you hear them union busting, you hear them UM requiring
Speaker 1: ridiculous regulations that aren't even necessary, and it's it's just
Speaker 1: there's no they don't do anything to inspire hope. So
Speaker 1: it's like, well you need you know, like um prison
Speaker 1: culture and uh Mary Mikaba says, like, you know, hope
Speaker 1: as a discipline. So I feel like a lot of
Speaker 1: us are always looking to like a place to exercise
Speaker 1: or hope and you're you're not going to get that
Speaker 1: here with with some of these organizations, I think you
Speaker 1: are going to get it in I think the rebro
Speaker 1: unions because I think there's a lot of us, and
Speaker 1: I think there were I think that we are working
Speaker 1: our little hearts out, and I think you're also going
Speaker 1: to get it with some of these other organizations, like um,
Speaker 1: the abortion like abortion funds and some of the practical
Speaker 1: support organizations that are really like getting on the level
Speaker 1: of patients who are patients for former patients and are like,
Speaker 1: we're going to get people abortions. I think that's where
Speaker 1: Hope is right now. Um, but not with our employer. Yeah,
Speaker 1: I wanted to I guess there's some of your things
Speaker 1: I wanted to ask about was sort of on a
Speaker 1: macro level. I mean, everyone we've talked to has talked
Speaker 1: about how like the ability to get an abortion is
Speaker 1: based on like a pretty small number of people who
Speaker 1: are like some you know, people who are abortion who
Speaker 1: are escorts, who are who are like a lot of
Speaker 1: time volunteers, or it's people who are like you two,
Speaker 1: who are being like horrifically underpaid to do the actual
Speaker 1: work of this. And I was wondering what you two
Speaker 1: think that like the like the way this like I
Speaker 1: don't know, I guess, like the way everyone has sort
Speaker 1: of run ragged even keeping the system. How it was,
Speaker 1: like what role that played on a sort of macro
Speaker 1: level in terms of why ROW was like destroyed in
Speaker 1: the first place, and what that's done to the sort
Speaker 1: of the broader movement. I mean, no, they didn't do
Speaker 1: anything to Bennett, Like like, it's just what have we seen?
Speaker 1: What show of force or strength or commitment to abortion
Speaker 1: access have we seen in ever? Honestly, like I can't
Speaker 1: even think other than like some loss or some legal
Speaker 1: wins we've celebrated, Like I do remember whole woman's health
Speaker 1: be Hellerstead, Um, what was that was like a win
Speaker 1: and we were excited and we were like, this is
Speaker 1: good news, and that's honestly the last and that again,
Speaker 1: that was just a court decision, so it was like
Speaker 1: not in our hands really anyways. So I just either's
Speaker 1: so little, there's so little to work with, and so
Speaker 1: a little look at outside of I think just some
Speaker 1: really excellent organizing from workers and practical support groups. And
Speaker 1: I really think that our community has been fabulous this
Speaker 1: last whole like month. All of the support that we've
Speaker 1: gotten um for our like personal morale has been through
Speaker 1: like friends or local businesses or like people who know
Speaker 1: people who um like are there to offer us like
Speaker 1: an ear, a hand, um, a cup of coffee. Um.
Speaker 1: Some of our doctors bring in bagels. Uh, this is
Speaker 1: like from their own pockets. Um, we'll bring in bagels.
Speaker 1: We've had like people donate and organized to bring in
Speaker 1: like coffee and stuff. UM. I know that Crystal was
Speaker 1: receiving a lot of donations herself, UM that we all
Speaker 1: use to buy ourselves, like food, drinks, stuff for people
Speaker 1: are just like sending me money for them. Yeah, and
Speaker 1: I thought that was really great. But I also noticed
Speaker 1: that it came from outside sources and not from internal sources. Um.
Speaker 1: These are all other people outside in our community who
Speaker 1: understand and value the work with that we're doing, and
Speaker 1: like actively listen for what we need and what we're
Speaker 1: asking for. Um. And I think that there's a lot
Speaker 1: to be said about that. Yeah. Honestly, the most hope
Speaker 1: and the most support has come from just like regular people.
Speaker 1: You don't really see it from anyone with anything any
Speaker 1: actual money or power. And on that note, this has
Speaker 1: been na could happen here You can find us on
Speaker 1: Twitter and Instagram That Happen Here pod, and you can
Speaker 1: find Crystal and Elizabeth Union at PPWP Union on Twitter
Speaker 1: for part two of this interview and until then goodbye.
Speaker 1: It Could Happen Here is a production of cool Zone Media.
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Speaker 1: listen to podcasts. You can find sources for It Could
Speaker 1: Happen Here, updated monthly at cool zone media dot com
Speaker 1: slash sources. Thanks for listening.