County Workers Stage Brief Walkout : Labor: They hold a rally and disrupt a Board of Supervisors meeting, protesting a contract offer that includes no raises except for nurses.

A day after their contracts expired, hundreds of Los Angeles County workers walked off their jobs Tuesday to protest stalled negotiations and staged a demonstration at the Board of Supervisors meeting.

The county has offered no pay raise this year for most of the 40,000 county workers--about half of the county work force of 85,000--whose contracts expired at midnight Monday.

After rallying outside the County Hall of Administration, more than 700 workers packed the board chambers, shaking their fists at the supervisors and demanding a salary increase.

“Sell the marble table,” the workers chanted in a reference to one of the items purchased during a costly remodeling of the chief administrative office.

“We got a $6-million-dollar man that we can’t afford,” said Gilbert Cedillo, general manager of the county’s biggest labor group, Service Employees International Union Local 660, which organized the demonstration.

Cedillo was referring to the $6 million spent remodeling and adding equipment to Chief Administrative Officer Richard B. Dixon’s suite of offices. “It’s our paycheck that needs to be remodeled,” the union official said.

Among employees whose contracts expired are nurses, librarians, court clerks, custodians and social workers who care for abused and neglected children and supervise welfare recipients.

The nurses have been offered raises because it is difficult to recruit nurses for county facilities overwhelmed by indigent patients, officials said. But Dixon would not say how much has been offered. “We are continuing to bargain with the nurses,” he said.

County nurses stayed off the job for three days in 1988 in a contract dispute until they were ordered back by a judge.

In the case of most other employees, Dixon said, “it’s our belief that . . . because of the recession and the labor market, we’re able to recruit and retain the quantity and quality of workers we need without a salary increase.”

“This is going to be a very difficult bargaining period,” Dixon added. “We can expect employee unrest, work actions and demonstrations. . . . For those bargaining units which are not offered salary increases early in the contract period, there is no incentive to settle.”

There were no reports of disruptions at county facilities.

Carol Matsui, special assistant to the county welfare director, reported that more than 500 welfare workers walked off the job for two to three hours, resulting in longer waits at welfare offices.

She said that if workers did not have approval to leave their jobs, their pay will be docked for the time off.

A spokesman for Social Services Union Local 550 said that after meeting privately with Supervisor Ed Edelman the union postponed a strike authorization vote until Friday. The union represents 2,800 social workers, including those responsible for providing services to abused and neglected children. Edelman is a former professional mediator who has helped settle county labor disputes.

However, Phil Ansell, senior field representative for Local 550, added: “The no-strike clause in the union contract has expired. We are free to engage in any kind of work disruption that we want. All we’re saying is a full-fledged strike will not happen before a vote” on Friday.

Ansell said the county has offered a pay raise, but it would not go into effect until October, 1992. He declined to reveal the amount but said it was unacceptable.

Cedillo said workers oppose parking fees proposed by the county to encourage car pooling and want an end to private contracting of county services.