Deputies Set for Job Action Unless County Offers Raise

The union for Orange County sheriff’s deputies is threatening an immediate job action if county representatives fail to offer a raise in pay or benefits Monday morning.

“We started negotiations the first of April and we have not received an offer from the county,” Deputy Jerry Pierson, president of the Assn. of Orange County Deputy Sheriffs, said Saturday. “We feel we’ve gone as far as we can go.”

If county negotiators, set to meet Monday morning with union representatives, don’t offer a raise, Pierson said, “We will bring about some type of job action very quickly, possibly the same day.”

Pierson said such action could be a “peaceful picket” at the least. In the past, job actions have included work slowdowns and sickouts. A strike, Pierson said, isn’t being considered. Deputies “don’t want to strike.”

Asked for 12% Pay Raise

The union, which represents 1,100 deputies, asked for a 12% pay raise, higher pay for specialty units such as bomb squads, and improvements in medical benefits and retirement pay. The county proposes to renew the expired contract, with no increases.

“The county has offered absolutely nothing,” Pierson said.

The county’s $1.7-billion budget for the 1987-88 fiscal year is one of the leanest in its history. It reduces financial reserves, eliminates more than 100 jobs and includes no pay raises for other county employees.

After working without a contract for nearly a month, deputies in early August voted “overwhelmingly” to authorize a job action, Pierson said.

The salary scale for sheriff’s deputies ranges from $2,109 to $2,983 a month. In Orange County, police officers’ salaries range from a starting pay of $2,081 in La Palma to a high of $3,352 in Irvine.

Sheriff’s Department spokesman Lt. Richard J. Olson said that while he hoped an agreement could be reached, the department is prepared for possible job action.

“There have been job actions in the past, and the level of service was not dropped,” Olson said. “We know what we did before. The main thing Sheriff (Brad) Gates is concerned with is that the same level of service is given to the community.

“We know that there is still time to get together. . . . It’s our desire they’ll work out their differences,” Olson added.

Last year, the county and the union clashed over a two-year package sought by the union that would have raised salaries 5.75% in each of the two years. The county offered a 4.75% raise for the first year and 4% in the second--the same percentages given to other county employees.

OKd One-Year Contract With Raise

Before the contract expired and after two sickouts by sheriff’s deputies, union members approved a one-year contract that gave them a 4.75% raise.

Because of the county’s stance then, union officials weren’t looking forward to the latest round of talks, Pierson said. “The general attitude of the county was not very receptive to us. We were able to sell the 4.75% to our members, but frankly they weren’t pleased.”

County counsel Adrian Kuyper said that “any action that threatened the public’s health and safety” would subject the union to legal action by the county.

“If the county wants (the deputies) to stop striking and they don’t, (the county) will have to take them to court,” Kuyper said.

Pierson expressed little optimism that the county would offer a raise.

“Hopefully, we’ll be pleasantly surprised,” he said. “If we don’t see movement, they will.”