County Team Pleased, Nurses’ Union Upset at Mediator’s ‘Best Offer’

Talks between Los Angeles County and a nurses’ union broke off early Sunday with union representatives saying they will submit the latest proposal endorsed by county negotiators to their membership and recommend that it be rejected.

“The money is just not enough,” Sharon Grimpe, general manager of the union representing the more than 4,000 county nurses, said Sunday at a news conference. “We said we were still open when talks broke off at 12:10 a.m. But they said the offer on the table was their ‘last, best and final offer.’ ”

The last offer was submitted to both parties Saturday night by a state mediator who has been facilitating the talks.

County officials immediately embraced the proposal and said they will submit it to the county Board of Supervisors for ratification this week. They estimated that the mediator’s proposed package would cost the county about $2 million more than it had previously offered the nurses, but about $8 million less than the nurses had sought.

The proposal would increase wages by the 14.5% previously offered by the county over the next two years, but would speed up the rate at which the increases are given.

The nurses, who have been asking for a 19.5% increase, staged a three-day strike in January. They returned to work after a judge issued a temporary restraining order to stop the strike. Another hearing is scheduled on the temporary restraining order Feb. 18, the nurses said. If the order is lifted and the nurses reject the proposal, Grimpe said, the strike may be resumed.

County-USC Medical Center was forced to transfer some patients and discharge others as a result of the strike. County officials said Sunday that patient loads are being increased slowly, but are still below normal.

Grimpe said Service Employees International Union Local 660 will mail the latest proposal to nurses and results would be back within two weeks. Asked if she believes the nurses will reject it, she said, “I don’t know.”

Both sides held press conferences Sunday and moods at the two events stood in stark contrast. County officials were clearly happy with the outcome of the mediator’s proposal, which more nearly matched their position than that of the nurses.

“The nurses were depressed when we left (negotiations), depressed and angry,” said Elliot Marcus, county director of employee relations. “But it was a settlement proposal we found acceptable.”

Increases Described

If the mediator’s proposal is adopted, experienced senior nurses would receive an immediate 7.5% salary increase, raising their monthly pay from $2,451 to $2,635, county officials said. Fixed monthly “retention bonuses” designed to keep nurses from leaving for private hospitals would be increased from $90 to $110.

Negotiators for the nurses contended that the wages they have been offered are well below the wages paid by private hospitals. But county negotiators said the offer is in line with salaries given at private hospitals and in some cases higher.

The union negotiators were admittedly downcast over the break off of talks that only Saturday they had described as “making progress.”

Among the issues they said the county had not addressed was a requirement that nurses who work in county intensive-care units work four 12-hour shifts, or 48 hours a week and are paid overtime for the extra eight hours. In private hospitals, she said, nurses work three 12-hour shifts and are paid for 40 hours.