SEIU workers, local officials call for paid parental leave at Labor Day rally prior to annual parade

Supporting paid parental leave is “common sense” to Bobbi Jean Ozanick, a stroke telemetry nurse at Allegheny General Hospital. 

“You’re already vulnerable. Your baby is already vulnerable,” she said. “You deserve to be able to have time with your baby without having to worry how to live.”

Ozanick was among the Service Employees International Union nurses, service workers and caregivers who gathered with elected officials and union leaders at a rally in the Lower Hill District before Pittsburgh's Labor Day parade. They urged Allegheny County Council to pass a proposal requiring all employers in Allegheny County to provide workers with at least 18 weeks of paid leave upon the birth or adoption of a child. Employees must have at least 30 days on the job and take the leave within the child's first year in increments of at least eight hours a week.

If enacted, the law would provide the largest amount of paid parental leave offered in the United States.

Among the largest employers in the county, UPMC offers two weeks of paid parental leave within 12 weeks of a birth or adoption, while the county offers its own employees 12 weeks. AGH does not offer any paid leave.

“This is a fight we are all in together to deliver for the people of Allegheny County because we are tired of waiting for the federal government,” County Executive Sara Innamorato said. “We are tired of waiting for the state government. We have the power to do this right here in Allegheny County … and we're not going to stop until it's done.”

Speakers, including Innamorato, said paid parental leave is essential to protect the health and economic security of all Allegheny County residents. 

“Paid parental leave is not a handout,” said Marchel Robinson, a union nurse specializing in high-risk postpartum patients at UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital. “It's an investment in working people. It's an investment in our children. It's an investment in the health [of our communities] and in our communities.”

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Health, in 2024 Allegheny County had higher rates of preterm births and low birth weights than the state average. The same year, Allegheny County’s infant mortality rate was worse than the state average. 

Additionally, cases of Severe Maternal Morbidity, or serious complications in pregnancy, rose 55% in the county between 2016 and 2022, according to the Pennsylvania Department of Health. Its report also reported that statewide Black mothers experience Severe Maternal Morbidity at more than twice the rate of white women. 

Both Black and Hispanic workers are less likely to have access to paid family and medical leave, according to an August report from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Paid parental leave would help address public health crises like maternal and infant death and uncontrolled circumstances, including postpartum health complications, said speakers, including Robinson and Innamorato, at the rally.

“My patients don't choose these complications,” Robinson said. “They don't choose when their bodies need time to heal. They don't choose when they need another doctor's appointment, another week at home or even another month to recover. And they shouldn't have to choose between healing, caring for their newborn and keeping a paycheck.”

The SEIU’s call for paid parental leave comes amid contract negotiations with two of the city's largest healthcare systems. Nurses at UPMC Magee-Women’s Hospital voted in 2025 to form a union with SEIU Healthcare Pennsylvania and began contract bargaining with the multibillion-dollar healthcare giant in January. Union nurses at Allegheny General Hospital, who ratified their last contract in 2023, began contract negotiations Sept. 1, negotiating for better staffing ratios and patient care. 

Lacey Matthews, a union nurse in the special procedures department at Allegheny General Hospital, shared a personal anecdote of her own experience with unpaid leave. 

Six years ago, Matthews worked as an agency nurse and aligned her contracts then to spend three months at home with her newborn daughter, a time that she’s grateful for. She wishes all working parents had that time with their newborns, but going three months without a regular paycheck is difficult for anybody. 

She said she chose to work at AGH two years ago “in no small part because I was excited about the standards that they had won in the most recent contract.”

“This is a great example of what happens when union members from across multiple industries and jobs come together to fight for our shared interests,” she said, acknowledging the role Magee nurses have played in advocating for paid parental leave. 

Union nurses at Magee endorsed the campaign for paid parental leave this past Mother’s Day, May 10, during a rally at the Pittsburgh Federation of Teachers headquarters on the South Side. The group also endorsed a statewide parental leave bill that passed in the House but stalled in the Republican-led Senate. 

On May 13, the Allegheny County Board of Health voted unanimously to advance the 18-week proposal to public comment. Since then, more than 1,400 residents have provided formal feedback.

 Opponents argue a mandate could discourage hiring and place local businesses — who already face rising costs, inflation and economic uncertainty —  at a competitive disadvantage. 

Matthew Napper, co-chair of the Northside/North Shore Chamber of Commerce, said at a June public hearing the chamber supports paid leave but expressed concern about the scope of the proposal.

"Consider a neighborhood pizza shop with an annual revenue of $500,000 and a profit margin of just 10%," he said. "If one full-time employee takes a full 18 weeks' paid leave, the combined cost of continuing employees’ paid benefits, while also hiring replacement coverage, could exceed $50,000. That single-leave event could wipe out a business’s entire annual profit push into the loss."

The Board of Health will likely vote on the proposal within a month. It would then go to the County Council for a final vote this fall. 

Instead of “slashing health care, jacking up the debt, starting new foreign wars,” U.S. Rep. Chris Deluzio, D-Fox Chapel, argued that the federal government should “be focused on our livelihoods right here at home,” where “hard work delivers a good and decent life” — one where taking care of a newborn doesn’t risk job loss.  

“I'm proud to see Allegheny County leading the way for the country, for our Commonwealth,” Deluzio said.

If Allegheny County is leading the way for paid parental leave, speakers said it will be unions, like SEIU, to thank for holding the torch that illuminated a better path for all workers.

“We’ve tried contractually to fight for parental leave, much like we’ve tried to fight for other things,” Ozanick said. “We see time and time again, just like Allegheny County sick time, the only way we’re going to get a lot of things done is legislatively.”