SACRAMENTO — Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California, the California Medical Association, SEIU California State Council and the California Teachers Association are joining together to urgently call on Governor Gavin Newsom to work with the Legislature in the final month of the regular session, and a special session if necessary, to put additional resources into California’s public health systems, education systems and into worker safety.

In a letter submitted to the Governor today, the organizations — which represent hundreds of thousands of health care providers and front line workers, educators and other essential workers — are asking the Governor to work with them in finding state-driven solutions and resources to address basic public health and safety needs to get the virus under control and enable a safe and equitable recovery. The letter states, “the simple fact is, if we want our economy to reopen and get our children back to school, we must focus on public health, effective testing and tracing to slow the spread of COVID-19, and the basic supports in providing care, keeping workers safe and opening schools.”

The organizations point to a continued lack of adequate PPE and testing, delayed processing of tests,  the need to expand contract tracing, insufficient support and protections for educators and workers that needs to be immediately addressed, while also calling for a discussion on long-term funding solutions to create stable and equitable health care and education systems.

The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and current response has created a situation where the crises occurring within public health, public education and worker safety are each unique yet also intersectional, and one cannot be addressed without considering the others. Solutions must address all the needs, not force essential workers to compete against each other.

Press Contacts:

Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California
Jennifer Wonnacott, Jennifer.wonnacott@ppacca.org, (916) 996-3672

CMA
Anthony York, ayork@cmadocs.org, (916) 551-2860    

CTA
Becky Zoglman, RZoglman@cta.org, (415) 298-3504

SEIU
Mike Roth, (916) 813-1554 (English-language)
Maria Elena Jauregui, (818) 355-5291 (Spanish-language)