County Asks for Mediation in Labor Impasse

Los Angeles County, hoping to avert a strike by its largest public employee union, declared an impasse in contract talks Monday and asked for help from a state mediator.

The county suspended the wage-and-benefit talks Friday when several hundred welfare workers called in sick. But those workers returned to their jobs Monday, and officials of both sides said negotiations are scheduled to resume this morning.

Phil Stone, the county’s lead negotiator, said veteran mediator Tom McCarthy was asked to enter the talks as a neutral party after a one-week extension of the contract, sought by the union, expired Aug. 31 without a settlement.

Under state law, either side in the dispute between the county and the Service Employees International Union, Local 660, has the option of declaring talks at an impasse. Such a stalemate sends the discussions into mediation or another step, fact-finding--a process in which another neutral party examines the disputed issues and then prepares formal recommendations to settle the contract.

Phil Giarrizzo, general manager of Local 660, called the county’s move “just another step in the process.” He warned, however, that what the county is really trying to do is “force a confrontation.”

Local 660 bargains for about 40,000 of the county’s 71,000 employees. It is one of 10 employee unions negotiating with the county to reach an accord on a new contract.

The county has not reached agreement with any of the employee unions, but the other unions, unlike Local 660, have agreed to a one-month extension of the old contract so that talks can continue.

Giarrizzo said Local 660 had proposed a one-week extension with the county, after which unsettled issues would be submitted to binding arbitration. The Board of Supervisors would be legally bound by an arbitrator’s findings.

Once the county declared an impasse in the talks, all terms of the old contract remain in effect. That is crucial to the county because it means that Local 660 is bound by a no-strike provision.

Giarrizzo agreed with that interpretation, saying he “cannot condone or sanction a work action” against the county and adding that if individual groups of county employees “seize the opportunity and demonstrate their frustrations” in a job action, “we must pledge our full support.”