Friday, September 24, 2010
Page 3
ADDA Membership Votes for Ratification of County Labor Contract
By a MetNews Staff Writer
The Association of Deputy District Attorneys said yesterday that its members have ratified an agreement with the County of Los Angeles on a labor contract.
The group said that its members on Monday voted 154-1 in favor of the first agreement of its kind between the group, which has bargained for prosecutors since March 2008, and the county.
If approved by the Board of Supervisors, the contract would be effective until September 2011. The ADDA said that it expects a vote by the board before the end of October.
A county negotiator previously told the MetNews that the contract, to which the county and the union tentatively agreed last month, represents “a basic contract” and includes no economic enhancements or bonuses.
The union said yesterday that the agreement was a “milestone” that “turns a new, more hopeful, page in the acrimonious relations between ADDA leaders and management negotiators who were embroiled in a bitter bargaining process since late 2008.”
ADDA President Hyatt Seligman, a 32-year prosecutor, called Monday “a historic day for our union and our deputies,” adding:
“Against overwhelming odds and unbelievable roadblocks, we’ve obtained what many thought was impossible. This achievement proves, once again, our deputies’ commitment to this office, its mission, and to fundamental fairness based upon mutual trust and understanding enshrined in our first ever labor-management contract.”
He thanked the union’s Contract Negotiating Committee, including Donna Mc Clay, Marc Debbaudt, John Harrold and Loren Naiman, and his predecessor, former ADDA President Steve Ipsen, who Seligman said was “unfairly scapegoated by County management to mask its own intransigence.” Ipsen resigned earlier this year amid a court battle with District Attorney Steve Cooley, who Ipsen accused of anti-union animus.
Cooley, the Republican candidate to become the state’s next attorney general, has denied the charge.
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