64 of County’s 91 Libraries Closed by Growing Walkout

A mass sickout forced the closure Tuesday of 64 of Los Angeles County’s 91 libraries, adding to a work stoppage by county employees that grew by more than 1,000 on its second day to a total of more than 4,500 absent workers.

However, the head of the union whose members took part in the sickouts and strike actions said all idled workers were being encouraged to return to work today but may be called out again as early as Thursday unless there is progress toward reaching a new contract.

As an indication of how talks were going between the county and the Service Employees International Union Local 660, county management declared late Tuesday that its negotiators were at an impasse with a handful of worker units within the union. Talks were expected to resume today, however, with about 10 other units.

Welfare offices, where many employees were off the job beginning Monday in a limited strike action, remained the hardest hit of crucial services, with caseloads on Tuesday backing up and delays getting longer in benefits reaching recipients.

Letters to Be Sent

The Board of Supervisors greeted the sickout and strike actions Tuesday by voting in closed session to send a letter detailing the management wage offer to each of the 40,000 workers represented by the holdout union.

Supervisor Deane Dana said the letter was ordered because board members believed that the strike and sickout activity would cease if Local 660 members knew precisely what was on the bargaining table. The board is not contemplating any immediate legal action against the strike, although such a step was discussed in closed session, Dana added.

Phil Giarrizzo, general manager of Local 660, attacked the board’s letter as an unfair labor practice and predicted that it would be ignored by the membership.

“I don’t believe that the Board of Supervisors has very much credibility with our members,” Giarrizzo said.

County officials said many employees were calling to say that they wanted to report to work but that they were afraid to cross picket lines set up at scores of county facilities.

There were no reports of violence at any strike location.

Giarrizzo said employees would be encouraged to return to work today but added that the limited work-stop actions could resume Thursday in the absence of progress toward a new contract. The local, which represents 24 job classifications, is the only union that has not reached tentative agreement to replace the contract that expired Aug. 31.

Public Works Hit

Joining Local 660’s work stoppage on its second day, besides 363 library staffers, were 356 public works employees, whose absence forced a shutdown of operations at four sewer maintenance yards in South-Central Los Angeles, Irwindale, Santa Fe Springs and Lancaster. In all, about 1,100 more county employees stayed off the job Tuesday than were out Monday.

The no-shows amounted to about half the work force scheduled at affected county facilities.

For the second consecutive day, nearly 3,000 welfare workers struck the county en masse, this time hitting all 32 payment offices and adding to a growing backlog of cases. Thousands of frustrated recipients and first-time applicants were told to come back Thursday for food and hotel vouchers, Medi-Cal cards or welfare checks in hopes that staffing would return to normal.

And, in a virtual repeat of Monday’s walkout statistics, clerical staff from the registrar-recorder, treasurer-tax collector, district attorney, children’s services and sheriff’s departments either called in sick or walked off their jobs protesting the absence of a contract with Local 660.

County Librarian Linda Crismond said that 26 libraries managed to remain open but that they were also affected by sickout absences. Supervisory staff from the department’s central office as well as library volunteers were dispatched to many branches to fill the breach.

Although only about 26% of the department’s staff engaged in the sickout, about two-thirds of the library workers are temporary or part-time employees who are not authorized to open libraries, Crismond said.

Crismond said six major regional libraries--in West Covina, Montebello, Norwalk, Carson, Huntington Park and Lancaster--will remain open, as will 20 branches in remote county areas. In addition to the unincorporated areas, the county library system has at least one branch in 48 of the county’s 84 incorporated cities.

Four Reopened

At one point 68 libraries were closed, but in the early afternoon, four were reopened after Crismond deployed supervisory staff to the facilities.

Crismond said about 30,000 people a day use the county’s libraries, by either checking out books or asking research questions by telephone. Some branch libraries closed by the sickout maintained some telephone question-answering services, she added.

At the county’s welfare offices, meanwhile, applicants for welfare benefits formed long lines only to find that in many cases their paper work had not been processed or had been lost. Many complained that they were told Monday to return Tuesday and then advised Tuesday to come back Thursday.

“She said to come back today and see Mrs. Evans,” complained Jose Rodriguez, 30, who had gone to an Echo Park welfare office for housing and food vouchers. “I come back and they tell me today that Mrs. Evans is on strike. She says there’s no help.”

Crime Threatened

Mario Hurd, a parolee, said he needed a hotel voucher and predicted that some recipients who cannot wait until later in the week might turn to crime if they need money.

“This is totally absurd,” Hurd said. “Some people don’t believe in sleeping on benches.”

Other recipients, standing in line, gazed at the picketers outside and found it hard to sympathize with the strikers.

“They don’t need more money,” one man said to no one in particular. “They need more help.”

Emergencies Only

Eddy S. Tanaka, director of the Department of Public Social Services, said in an interview that his staff has been ordered to handle any emergency welfare cases but that people who can wait were being asked to return later in the week. The department normally helps about 12,000 people a day, about half of whom are expected to experience delays in help, according to a department spokeswoman.

Tanaka said if the strike continues, the backlog will intensify as people who initially indicate that they can wait for benefits reach a point where they can no longer wait.

Separating Local 660 and the county are differences over pay, fringe benefits, contract language, contract length and benefits for temporary workers. The contract that expired Aug. 31 has been extended on a day-to-day basis.

The limited strike actions were authorized last month by a vote of Local 660’s membership, with union leadership assurances that a full-scale walkout would not occur until workers had a chance to vote on the county’s final offer.

This week’s strike was called, according to union leaders, because county officials had been bargaining in bad faith. County officials placed the blame on the union.