In the hospitals and clinics of the Los Angeles County Health Services Department, the second largest municipal health system in the country, our 19,000 staff members always put our patients first. And we are proud to serve more than 670,000 people every year in facilities located across the county.

One important reason that we are able to deliver high-quality, compassionate care is because of the cooperative and productive relationship that we in the management of the health system have forged with our employees and the union that represents them, the Service Employees International Union. This relationship also, of course, benefits our employees, the health system overall and our community.

Unfortunately, the U.S. Supreme Court is about to hear arguments in a case, Friedrichs v. California Teachers Association, that threatens to disrupt the partnership we have formed with our employees and their union. It also threatens to upend similar relationships in other areas of the public sector and for other public service workers such as teachers, firefighters, social workers and others who provide vital services in our communities.

The group of California teachers who brought their case to the Supreme Court say that paying what are called fair-share fees violates their constitutional rights, despite the fact that the Supreme Court unanimously decided that these kind of arrangements are constitutional nearly 40 years ago.

No one is ever required to join a union, here in Los Angeles or anywhere else in the country, and no one is ever forced to pay for a union’s political activities or support political candidates they don’t agree with. Those who choose not to join the union pay the fair-share fee (sometimes called an agency fee), which covers only the cost of negotiating the contract that covers them and other representational activities. Since the union is required by law to represent everyone when negotiating with employers such as the health system, every employee pays this fair-share fee because everyone in the workplace abides by and benefits from the negotiated agreements.

Simple concept

Until recently, this simple, straightforward concept was not a serious matter of debate, and thousands of contracts in California and about two dozen other states have come to rely on such arrangements to ensure strong labor-management partnerships.

A robust labor-management partnership is a key component of our quality- and efficiency-improvement strategy. The current system allows us to decrease costs, maximize employee efficiency and improve outcomes for patients.

As we told the court in our brief, we worked together with SEIU Local 721 “to educate front-line housekeeping and food service staff about working more efficiently, with fewer toxic chemicals, and in ways likely to reduce hospital-acquired infections. … The project improved Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center’s score on the ‘cleanliness’ measure of a leading patient-satisfaction survey from 49 percent to 86 percent, which is important not only for quality and customer-service reasons but also because cleanliness scores are used to help determine hospital reimbursement rates under Medicare’s ‘value-based purchasing’ methodology.”

We are very concerned that undermining the rights of working people to come together and form a strong union that represents all employees in the workplace will undermine these kinds of partnerships and the strong and valuable results they produce.

In California, we have made the choice to allow fair-share fee arrangements because we know that when we have a strong partner on the other side of the bargaining table, we can come together and agree on things beyond wages and benefits. A stronger partner means better collaboration and a wider range of possibilities.

We’re confident that this choice is the one that is best for our employees and patients, the health system and community. We urge the Supreme Court to respect this choice and reject this challenge to the kind of strong labor-management partnerships that are essential to our success and the success of employers across the country.

Dr. Mitch Katz is the director of the Los Angeles County Health Services Department.