The union representing deputy district attorneys in Los Angeles County has filed an unfair labor practice charge against District Attorney George Gascón, claiming he made false statements in an interview.
They allege Mr. Gascón made untrue, anti-union statements in an interview with an editorial board member of the Southern California News Group, which were published verbatim in newspapers across Southern California, according to the Association of Deputy District Attorneys.
The charge was filed Feb. 22 with the Los Angeles County Employee Relations Commission, which determines whether unfair practice charges filed against management and employee organizations are valid.
The association says Mr. Gascón claimed the union turned down a pay increase offer from him, discouraged members from applying for promotions, and raised union dues several times without member consent.
“George Gascón’s lies are designed to undermine the hard work that our union has done to stand up for and defend our members’ civil service and workplace rights,” the association’s president, Michele Hanisee, said in a press release provided to The Epoch Times. “He is also seeking to shift the blame for his failed leadership onto the line prosecutors who work in the District Attorney’s Office.”
In his comments, the district attorney claimed the union had raised dues several times to campaign against him.
“In their work against me, the union had to raise their dues twice and now a third time—they spent it on the campaign against me, on recalls, on lawsuits. But ... we are seeing cracks,” he was quoted as saying in the the newsgroups’ newspapers, both in Los Angeles and Orange counties.
“We gave tests for DA 4,” a step up for junior prosecutors, “and the union told people not to take the exam, and over 300 people took the exam.”
In the editorials, Mr. Gascon also is quoted as saying the union refused his offer to give raises to many of the attorneys because they didn’t want him to “have that victory.”
The association denied the allegation.
“None of that is true,” it said in the press release.
The association’s board of directors has never discouraged its members from taking a promotional exam, according to the union. The district attorney has also never offered to increase deputies’ pay and lacks the power to do so, it added.
Mr. Gascón has come under fire, by some, for his so-called “soft-on-crime” policies which many say are to blame for rising crime since he took office in 2020. He is running for reelection against 11 challengers in the March 5 primary. Voting is already underway.
The union association has endorsed Deputy District Attorney Eric Siddall in the race.
Mr. Gascón’s office did not return a request for comment on deadline.
