Deputies OK Job Actions in Battle for Jail Changes

Orange County sheriff’s deputies have authorized their union leaders to call job actions to bring about changes in working conditions at the County Jail, a union spokesman announced Monday.

Robert J. MacLeod, general manager of the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, said the authorization was granted by union members voting by mailed ballot.

Although MacLeod declined to reveal how many deputies had voted to authorize possible job actions, he said “we had a very good response” to the ballot, which was mailed to the association’s 800 members last month.

The union’s demands are focused on two areas, MacLeod said.

“First, we want the county’s assurance that now and in the future they will deal with us in good faith. And secondly, we want the county to improve the conditions in the men’s and women’s jails,” he said.

During contract negotiations last summer, the union sought 12-hour shifts for deputies assigned to the jail, with work schedules of four days on and three off for one week followed by three days on and four off the next.

A committee that studied the proposal for the Board of Supervisors recommended against the plan. The union claims the recommendation was based on inaccurate data supplied by the county administrative office and the Sheriff’s Department. The board rejected the so-called “12 plan.”

Deputies currently work eight-hour shifts and, they claim, put in a great deal of mandatory overtime, due to manpower shortages.

The union claims that the jail is vastly understaffed, with only 110 deputies divided among three shifts handling more than 2,000 inmates in a facility originally designed to house 1,200.

MacLeod said the union has requested a meeting with John W. Sibley, county director of employee relations, “in an attempt to negate the necessity for any sort of job action.”

“What they need to do is sit down and work with us to improve things,” Macleod said. “There are any number of things that can be done.

“We hope we do not have to exercise the authority given to us by the members to take job actions, and if there’s any way we can avoid that, we will try.”

Unusual Tactics

The union official conceded that the job-action tactics are unusual in that no contract negotiations are in progress.

“Ordinarily, a labor organization has job actions when it’s in contract negotiations or is fighting with management over money,” MacLeod said. “That’s not happening now. We’re not asking for a nickel more pay or another day of vacation or any more benefits. We just want to have the current working conditions changed.”

Regarding job actions the deputies might take if their demands are not met, MacLeod said, “They’re limited only by the imagination. There can be informational picketing, mass attendance at a Board of Supervisors meeting, sickouts, slowdowns, court actions. Just about anything.”

MacLeod said the union’s board of directors will gather within a week to 10 days to review the results of the balloting “and anything that has transpired between us and the county. They will also discuss the various job action alternatives available to us.”

‘Always Willing to Talk’

The county’s Sibley, noting that the threatened job actions only six months into the two-year contract deputies agreed to last July are “very unusual,” said he is still willing to meet with union leaders.

“We’re always willing to talk about staffing and safety because that’s as important to the county and the sheriff as it is to the deputies themselves,” he said.

“I know they are talking about a lot of other issues, but the ’12 plan’ is the real issue here. We have the ability to change hours and schedules. This staffing change they want was already considered and the final result is that it was rejected by the board.

“There are other alternatives, and if we can find a better way of doing business with them, we’re certainly going to do it.”

Sheriff-Coroner Brad Gates was not available for comment Monday, and Undersheriff Raul Ramos said he could not comment because the department had not been officially notified by the county of the union’s actions.