Physicians, dentists, and dental hygienists employed by Los Angeles County represented by the Union of American Physicians and Dentists (UAPD) have ratified new salary and wage agreements for bargaining units 324 and 325 under the current contract in effect from June 2024 through September 2027.
What Members Won
Cost-of-living (COLA) Adjustments
- 2% COLA effective October 1, 2026
- 5% COLA effective October 1, 2027
Ratification Payments
- $5,000 payment effective upon notification of ratification
- $2,000 payment effective October 1, 2026
The County is expected to issue the first ratification payment within 45 days of receiving notice of the ratification to all full-time and part-time bargaining unit employees who are in active pay status as of the ratification date.
Protecting Your Pay and Benefits
In addition to COLA adjustments, the contract now includes strengthened fiscal integrity protections—an essential safeguard during times of economic uncertainty amid ongoing healthcare funding challenges. Alongside the County Coalition of Unions, the UAPD negotiated stronger fiscal integrity language that strictly limits when and how the County can modify our COLAs or touch member compensation.
Key Protections
- Current salary, benefits, and specialty pay are locked in for the life of the contract
- Defining “structural deficit” as “long-term structural deficit” to raise the threshold before County administration can invoke any fiscal emergency measures.
- Any attempt to reduce or eliminate
- Structural deficit takeaways now require a public vote by the County Board of Supervisors.
Before any fiscal emergency can be declared, the County must first exhaust all of the following measures (that do not require a Board vote):
- Limiting new non-mandatory program spending
- Implementing hiring and spending freezes
- Executing budget curtailments without layoffs
- Delay of new County programming and project funding
- Cancelling non-essential contracts under Proposition A
These protections matter now more than ever. With ongoing federal healthcare funding challenges directly impacting public health. The UAPD fought to ensure that budget pressures cannot be passed down to the workers who keep our public healthcare system running.
What Happens Next
Both contracts were approved with majority support by members and following approval by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, the contracts will move into the implementation phase.