County Pay War: Some Workers to Walk Off?

In what could be the first of a series of limited walkouts, thousands of welfare workers are expected to stay off their jobs today in protest against stalled contract talks between Los Angeles County and its largest employee union.

The strike, affecting 15 of 54 offices of the Department of Public Social Services, would be the first major job action by public employees since the state Supreme Court issued its landmark right-to-strike ruling last May 14.

Phil Giarrizzo, general manager of Service Employees International Union, Local 660, said the strike will probably also involve clerical staff at as many as 30 offices of the district attorney’s Family Support Division. Giarrizzo predicted that at least 3,000 county employees would stay off their jobs today and possibly longer.

County officials, who said they had heard rumors of the strike, reacted angrily to the expected walkout, going so far as to place the blame squarely at Giarrizzo’s doorstep. Management’s chief negotiator, Phil Stone, added that further talks would be canceled if the union carries out its strike threat.

‘College Stuff’

“(Giarrizzo) doesn’t seem to really want a settlement,” Stone said Sunday. “He wants a strike. This is like 1960s college stuff.”

To threats by county officials that they would suspend bargaining if walkouts were staged, Giarrizzo said, “Calling off bargaining now would only aggravate the problem.”

Giarrizzo added that further walkouts by other Local 660 employee groups could be expected until an agreement is reached. He said the union has a strike schedule “tactically and strategically designed to keep going as long as it takes to reach a settlement.”

In addition to welfare and clerical workers, Local 660, which represents about 40,000 of the county’s 71,000-employee work force, also includes such diverse occupations as nurses, prosecutors and paramedics, two dozen different jobs in all.

Members Voted

The planned walkout comes more than two weeks after members of the union voted overwhelmingly to give their leadership authority to call a strike, if necessary, if an agreement were not reached with the county by midnight Sept. 30. Talks began last spring and have continued on a day-to-day basis since the county’s contract expired Aug. 31.

At last month’s strike authorization meeting, Giarrizzo promised the membership that a general strike would not be called until after the county’s final offer was presented and voted upon. On Friday, Local 660’s bargaining team formally rejected the county’s fringe benefit proposal.

Local 660 is the only employee union that has not yet reached at least tentative agreement with the county. County officials had months ago predicted privately that Local 660 would be the only union that would stage a walkout, but in recent weeks, as most of the other unions began to settle, they voiced optimism that a strike could be averted.

Real Possibility

Giarrizzo, the fiery head of the union, has for months warned that a strike was a real possibility. His comments were in sharp contrast with leaders of other county employee unions, who had predicted confrontation-free negotiations, despite major differences with the county.

Last month, Local 660 members engaged in sporadic sickouts, involving several thousand workers. The largest such action, on Sept. 16, forced the closure of nearly a dozen neighborhood health clinics.

However, today’s expected strike is the first job action publicly sanctioned by Local 660. Its success or failure could weigh heavily on the outcome of the bogged-down negotiations.

Giarrizzo said he warned management negotiators on Friday that a “confrontation loomed on Monday.”

The strike was called largely because union negotiators have been frustrated in their attempts to meet directly with chief county negotiator Stone at the bargaining table, Giarrizzo said. Bargaining through Stone’s designees, Giarrizzo said, has slowed down the process considerably.

Stone scoffed at Giarrizzo’s charge.

Bargaining Table

“I don’t have to be at the bargaining table,” Stone said. “Under the law, we don’t have any right to tell him who to bring to the table, and he doesn’t have any right to tell us.

“It’s either his way or no way, and that’s where he’s at,” Stone said. “The man doesn’t want a settlement. He looks at this whole thing as a game. I don’t know what his agenda is.”

Giarrizzo called Stone’s charge, “absolutely ridiculous,” adding that “we’re not interested in a confrontation . . . we want a settlement we can live with and recommend to our members as well.”

The dispute centers around pay and fringe benefit issues. The county is essentially offering a three-tiered, 25-month contract. Raises would total between 9.5% and 11.5% by the end of the contract but would not begin until next Jan. 1. The largest hike would not occur until two months before the proposed contract expires on Sept. 30, 1987.

Holiday Benefits

Management is also requesting reductions in previously awarded sick leave and holiday benefits. The union, meanwhile, wants a shorter contract, with raises paid out earlier, as well as no reductions in benefits.

“All of these offers are equal to or better than the general county employee (unions) has gotten,” said Assistant Chief Administrative Officer Don Deise.

Deise, who Stone reports to, said it was unclear how the county might formally react to today’s expected walkout.

“We’ll have to gauge what they do and see what services are affected,” Deise said. “It’s clear that if it affects health and safety, we’ll go for an injunction.”

Health and safety concerns were cited by the state Supreme Court as exceptions to its right-to-strike ruling. The controversial decision, coming in a case involving Local 660, held that public employees--with the specific exception of firefighters--could legally engage in work stoppages.

Picket Lines

What the other county employee unions might do is also an uncertainty. On Friday, Local 660 sought strike sanction from the county Federation of Labor. Such a sanction would mean that unions belonging to the federation would honor any picket lines.

However, the federation delayed at least until Oct. 15 a decision pending the county’s response to a Local 660 request that a community leader--agreeable to both sides--be called in to mediate the dispute.