County, Union in Tentative Accord on Fringe Benefits

The first significant progress in the labor dispute between Los Angeles County and its largest pubic employee union was announced Friday.

After three days of negotiations between county representatives and officials of the Service Employees International Union Local 660, a tentative partial agreement was reached on fringe benefits, including provisions for paid time off for temporary workers, county assumption of additional employee health care costs and a study of bilingual staffing and employee training needs.

Talks will resume Monday on several key issues, including wage increases. Phil Giarrizzo, general manager of the union, which represents about 40,000 of the county’s 71,000 employees, stressed that the two sides have only a partial agreement and “the reaction to the total package is still to be determined.”

While talks continue the union is not calling for job actions, he said.

Local 660, the only major county union that has not reached agreement on a contract, has conducted a series of limited strikes and sickouts that peaked Oct. 8, when more than 4,500 employees failed to show up to work. The job actions were suspended Oct. 10, when both sides agreed to return to the bargaining table.