UCLA Doctors Who Staff Pasadena Specialty Care Clinics Could Be Affected by Union Drive

Doctors who treat patients at UCLA Health’s Pasadena clinics work in a system targeted for a new unionization campaign to be announced Tuesday in Los Angeles, according to Service Employees International Union.

The campaign, called UC Doctors United, will seek to organize nearly 10,000 attending doctors across the University of California system, the advisory said. The organization described it as the largest unionization effort of attending doctors in U.S. history.

Attending doctors, joined by interns, residents and fellows represented by the Committee of Interns and Residents, SEIU, and by union supporters and allies, will gather Tuesday, July 28 in Westwood for the launch, according to the advisory.

The Pasadena connection runs through UCLA Health’s local footprint. UCLA doctors work at numerous off-campus sites, including facilities in Pasadena, and patients seen at those sites are treated by UCLA-affiliated doctors, including attendings and other staff.

UCLA Health operates several medical offices and specialty centers in Pasadena, including Pasadena Primary & Specialty Care at 625 S. Fair Oaks Ave., South Tower, Suite 280, offering primary care and multiple specialties; a Pasadena Cancer Care Center at 625 S. Fair Oaks Ave., North Tower, Suite 320, providing oncology services under the Simms/Mann – UCLA Center for Integrative Oncology; and a UCLA Health OBGYN & Family Planning clinic at 10 Congress St., Suite 505.

The sites are part of a network that the advisory said includes five hospitals and more than 290 locations across Southern California.

The union statement does not tie Tuesday’s announcement to any specific change at the Pasadena clinics. It frames the campaign as a systemwide UC effort.

The union said that the doctors are organizing to gain a voice in patient care, safety, staffing, workloads, medical education, research and other decisions affecting their profession.

” We’re fighting to improve our healthcare system from the inside,” said Hannah Spungen, an emergency medicine physician at UCLA, in a statement included in the union advisory. “It’s time to set our own priorities and advocate for ourselves, protect our colleagues, and provide the best care possible.”