With all the votes counted, 202 Los Angeles County pharmacists have voted in favor of joining UAPD, with just 17 voting for the Guild, and 1 voting for No Representation. That is more than 90% of the votes in favor of the new union. Based on these ERCOM, the labor board for Los Angeles, will recognize UAPD as the new union representative at its next meeting on June 22nd.
The determination, unity, and hard work demonstrated by pharmacists throughout this campaign has been striking. Pharmacist leaders collected signed union cards from a majority of their colleagues by May of last year, but their union election was delayed for several months because a political dispute in Los Angeles left ERCOM out of commission. UAPD worked with our allies in Los Angeles to help settle that dispute and get ERCOM back on track, so that the pharmacists could move forward with the process of joining UAPD.
The strength of this group will be put to good use in the coming months, when they negotiate the first UAPD contract with Los Angeles County. UAPD staff and elected leaders in Los Angeles have begun working with pharmacists on the contract campaign.