Los Angeles County Physicians
Agreement Overwhelmingly Ratified by Members!
On February 22nd, UAPD members ratified a new contract with Los Angeles County, with 96% voting in favor of agreement. The new contract will protect the pension benefits of currently employed physicians and significantly increase salaries for years to come. The terms of the contract, including the wage increases, must be approved by the Board of Supervisors before they go into effect. The Board is expected to review the contract in March.
Details of New Contract
Memorandum of Understanding Between UAPD and Los Angeles County
Previous Information on LA County Bargaining
Los Angeles County Doctors Unionize!
After winning a successful card authorization campaign, the UAPD was officially certified as the sole representative for Los Angeles County physicians on September 24th, 2007. Almost seven hundred physician specialists and physicians comprise the bargaining unit. On Friday October 26th, the UAPD met with LA county representatives to begin the negotiations for a new Memorandum of Understanding. After introductions, discussions focused on ground rules to assure an orderly process.
The parties agreed to schedule weekly meetings. Since this will be a first contract, we have to cover “everything”: purpose, salaries and benefits, recognition, health and safety, grievances, etc. It is our intention to get through all non monetary items first so that we may focus on the compensation package.
During the November 14th meeting, the UAPD presented a set of proposals to the county. After discussion and counterproposals, both sides tentatively agreed (TA’d) 7 of the 9 proposals. Our bargaining team felt that the talks were productive. We hope to negotiate a new MOU in a relatively short period of time. Both sides are motivated to negotiate long awaited pay raises.
UAPD will keep you informed of our progress on a frequent basis. Our next meeting is November, 21st.
Stuart Bussey, M.D., J.D.
UAPD President
Los Angeles Board of Supervisors Approves $10.1 Million Dollar Back Pay Settlement for LA County Physicians
On Tuesday, January 23, 2007 the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved a $10.1 million dollar back pay settlement negotiated between the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD) and Los Angeles County that will be distributed among 670 County employed physicians. The settlement ends over six years of litigation between the County and the UAPD that resulted from the County’s unlawful removal of benefits from 800 physicians who unionized in 1999. In July of 2005 the Court of Appeals ruled that Los Angeles County violated state law by forcing the newly unionized physicians to accept a lesser benefit plan from January 2002 to January 2004 that resulted in losses averaging $15,000 per physician.
Back paychecks will be mailed out to the doctors as soon as they can be processed.
“This is a great victory for County physicians and a defeat for the efforts of the Board of Supervisors to punish the physicians for unionizing. Not even the Board of Supervisors is above the law” said Stuart Bussey, MD, JD, President of the UAPD.
The doctors voted to decertify the UAPD and become unrepresented in June of 2003 because of the removal of the Flexible Benefit Plan which, according to the Board of Supervisors at the time, was only available to unrepresented employees. The doctors received the benefits back in January of 2004 after becoming officially “unrepresented”.
The doctors will also regain the option of participating in the 401 K Deferred Earnings Plan in July of 2007 as the result of the settlement. Los Angeles County will match the first 4% of the doctor’s salary if he/she contributes to the plan.
“We waited for this day for a long time,” said Orlando Pile, MD, Chief of Communicable Diseases for the Sheriffs Department Medical Facility at Twin Towers Correctional Facility in downtown LA. “It wasn’t right for the County to remove our benefits and now we are looking forward to the back pay and the opportunity to unionize once again”, he said.
The UAPD is affiliated with AFSCME which represents over 40,000 State, County, and City employees in California, and was instrumental in getting Governor Gray Davis to sign legislation sponsored by then Assemblyman Gil Cedillo (AB 2006) in 2001 that made the removal of benefits from Los Angeles County employees illegal.
For further information contact UAPD President Stuart Bussey, MD, JD, at 925-200-9310, UAPD Regional Director Joe Bader at 310-398-4038, or UAPD Executive Director Gary Robinson at 800-622-0909.