Young reporter Sarah Mirk ventured all the way to Seattle from Grinnell College in Iowa to be, curiously enough, a Stranger intern this summer. She claims to be a big Stranger fan who reads us on-line religiously & she just “had to work here.” (Truth is: her boyfriend got a summer internship at Hate Free Zone here, so she needed a legitimate reason to give her parents for spending a summer in Seattle. “Hey, Mom & Dad, I’m fetching coffee for A. Birch Steen.”)

Anyway, she’s been on the job for less than a week, and she’s already filed this news blurb about, among other issues, pot smoking and abortion clinics! (“Hi, Mom!”)

Congrats on some solid reporting, Ms. Mirk.

Anti-Choice at Planned Parenthood The third round of negotiations began this week between the union representing Planned Parenthood of Western Washington (PPWW) and Planned Parenthood management. The union wants the managers of the bastion of birth control to be less pro-choice—at least when it comes to union membership.

United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21 is peeved that PPWW is “open shop,â€� meaning employees do not have to join the union. Although all 400 PPWW employees receive union benefits, only roughly 240 employees pay union dues. While Planned Parenthood negotiator Carol Williams said this policy was due to the CEO’s “belief in choice,â€� union rep David Fleishman counters, “You usually get big bad corporations that are open shop… You’re not pro-choice when it comes to union membership.â€�

In addition to open shop practices, another contentious issue on the negotiating table is employee drug testing. According to Williams, PPWW has had several incidents of employees smelling of marijuana and drugs missing from surgical units. Instead of forcing managers to communicate with suspected pot scented employees, PPWW wants a drug test policy. Union rep Fleishman is unequivocal: “We’re hoping we can resolve this without a fight, but they gotta get off their drug testing and start respecting the union.â€�

Of course, the union and the PPWW managers are also scrapping over other issues, including wage increases and health care coverage for dependents. SARAH MIRK