County Nurses Accept Pact That Nears Goal of ‘Parity’

Los Angeles County nurses late Monday approved by a 3 to 2 margin a tentative contract that includes a 17.25% pay raise over two years--and a promise by county officials to study increased security at hospitals.

“It’s going to move the nurses working for the county health care network closer to parity with the private sector,” said Steve Weingarten, a spokesman for Local 660 of Service Employees International Union, which represents the nurses. “The nurses have agreed that this is a competitive package.”

The nurses, who staff six county-run hospitals and 47 neighborhood clinics, had been seeking a 22% increase over two years.

The proposed agreement must still be ratified by the county Board of Supervisors. After results of the voting were announced, Supervisor Deane Dana said he was confident the board would approve the contract.

“It’s wonderful news,” he said of the vote. “I congratulate the county staff and the nurses for pulling it together.”

The county promised to study proposed new security measures, such as trams, to take nurses to and from parking lots. In addition, the county will study installing a barrier to separate the emergency room from public waiting areas at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in Watts. The hospital was singled out for increased security because of gang shootings in the neighborhood, a county official said.

County nurses, who currently earn between $2,600 and $3,000 a month, claimed they make less money than nurses working at private hospitals. The tentative contract will increase nurses’ top salary to $3,337 by July 1, 1991, Weingarten said. A 10.5% raise will be retroactive to Oct. 1, followed by 1% increase on July 1, 1990, 3% on Oct. 1, 1990, and 2.75% on July 1, 1991, he said.

The agreement was reached Wednesday, just five hours before the county’s 5,126 nurses were set to strike, and after Board of Supervisors Chairman Ed Edelman summoned both sides to his office in an 11th-hour effort to prevent a strike.

The nurses voted on the new contract throughout the day Monday at 18 locations in the county. Only about half of the nurses are union members, although almost all will be affected by the new contract.

County officials maintained during negotiations that in the event of a strike, they were prepared to seek a court order, as they did in 1988, directing the nurses to return to work.