fbpx

UAPD Meets with California State Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon

Sacramento, CA — Chris Ige, UAPD Southern California Director, and George Osborn, Contract Advocate, met with Speaker Anthony Rendon to discuss the Union’s legislative priorities for 2023:

  1. Pilot psychiatrist registry at Patton State Hospital
  2. A District bill for removal of the sunset clause for AB 1538 (Bonta — 2017) which sets restrictions on contracting out by the Alameda County Health Care System
  3. Legislative fix for AB 890 (Wood — 2020) that allows the replacement of physicians by nurse practitioners
  4. Medical Board of California governance

Ige and Osborn also introduced the UAPD/AFSCME budget issues. The first issue is the psychiatrist vacancy rate in the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR) and the Department of State Hospitals (DSH). For several years, UAPD/AFSCME has raised the issues of recruitment and retention (R&R) for psychiatrists in the state budget, in which we receive the same response that R&R and psychiatrist compensation issues are to be addressed in bargaining. However, when UAPD representatives are at the bargaining table with the California Department of Human Resources (CalHR), R&R bonuses are not open to discussion or negotiation.

UAPD requested that Speaker Rendon ask Governor Newsom to advise the CalHR Director to bring the topic of psychiatrist compensation and R&R bonuses to the bargaining table. UAPD will continue to be at the bargaining table regarding this matter and raising these issues with the Administration to fight for our members.