Nurses Vote to Return but Threaten a New Walkout : Labor: Some county public works employees and nearly all the bakers for jail system go on strike.

Striking nurses voted Wednesday to return to their jobs at Los Angeles County hospitals and health clinics, but they threatened to walk out again Monday night in defiance of a court order if they don’t get an acceptable contract offer from county negotiators.

The nurses’ vote came a few hours after several hundred of the county’s 3,800 flood control, sewer repair and street maintenance workers walked off the job. Union officials reported that Department of Public Social Service workers had voted to walk out too, but have not set a strike date. In addition, bakers for the county jail system walked out on Wednesday.

The work actions were all part of the “rolling thunder” strategy of Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union, which hopes to use the combined power of its 41,000 members in various county departments to win significant wage and benefit increases in 21 separate contracts.

Medical services were severely curtailed at six county hospitals and 47 health centers for the second day Wednesday, even though 70% of the county’s 4,500 nurses reported for duty on the early morning shift. All emergency rooms and trauma centers remained closed to ambulance traffic during most of the day. Elective surgical operations at the hospitals were postponed, out-patient clinics stayed closed and some wards remained empty of patients in an effort to consolidate services.

Nonetheless, health officials were optimistic that by today, services would be back to normal and that ambulances would once again be bringing patients to county facilities.

More than 400 nurses who remained off the job Wednesday morning met later and voted to obey the back-to-work order issued Tuesday by Superior Court Judge William Huss. They agreed to return to work immediately and resume negotiations with the county. The talks are set to resume at 10 a.m. today.

The decision was prompted by a message that county officials were willing to return to the bargaining table. According to Local 660 General Manager Gilbert Cedillo, the county broke off talks Monday evening, prompting the strike that began several hours later. County officials say the union broke off the talks.

Nurses leaving Wednesday’s meeting said a second vote was taken as well: to walk off the job again next Monday at 11 p.m. if county negotiators fail to make an acceptable offer.

“We do what we find is necessary when we do not have a choice,” Cedillo said.

Several nurses said they had planned to return to work Wednesday, regardless of the vote, because they did not want to disobey the court order.

State Sen. Diane Watson (D-Los Angeles) appeared at the downtown meeting exhorting the nurses to “do what you have to do” to improve conditions for patients at county health facilities. Watson, who has announced she will run for the seat now held by retiring Los Angeles County Supervisor Kenneth Hahn, criticized county Administrator Richard Dixon’s multimillion-dollar redecoration of his offices. Several nurses waved signs reading: “Fire the $6 Million Man.”

“I do not advocate breaking the law,” Watson said. “But do what you have to do.”

Union officials claimed victory, despite Tuesday’s apparent defeat in court. They said the strike had dramatically underscored the problem of inadequate staffing and patient overload in the county’s public health care system.

“We have brought this issue before the light of the public,” said Bob McCloskey, the union’s chief negotiator for nurses.

Overall, the patient load at the six hospitals was reduced to 2,482 patients early Wednesday morning, compared to 2,916 a week ago, according to Irv Cohen, director of administration and finance for the Department of Health Services.

The reductions came mostly from the early discharge of hundreds of patients and a tight clamp placed on new admissions. In addition, a few sick patients were transferred to private hospitals.

The reduced workload, accompanied in some cases by a full contingent of nurses, resulted in an unusually comfortable pace of operations in some facilities.

Dr. Gail Anderson, director of emergency medicine at County-USC, said that with a little reshuffling of personnel, he had a full staff of nurses.

“We’re not hurting,” he said.

Down the hall, at a clinic where patients from the emergency room are referred for various tests and then discharged, nurse Clay Cortinez said that the usual frenzy had been superseded Wednesday morning by a refreshing calm.

“We might even have time to play checkers,” he joked.

At the Harbor-UCLA Medical Center’s emergency room, Dr. Carl Stevens said the diversion of ambulances to private hospitals had reduced the patient load enough to compensate for nurse absenteeism.

Surgery at Harbor/UCLA Medical Center in Torrance was resumed, though at “less than 50%” the usual level, according to the health department’s Carl Williams.

The county’s 47 health centers were hit by the worst absenteeism in the system, with 42% of the public health nurses out on Wednesday morning. None of the large comprehensive health centers were closed, but some smaller clinics were closed, according to health services spokeswoman Toby Staheli.

Department of Public Works officials said the walkout that began Wednesday morning by between 300 and 400 of the county’s 3,800 flood control, sewer repair and street maintenance workers had little significant impact.

Union officials said they thought far more than that had walked out, but had no way of coming up with specific figures or gauging the impact of the job action. The public works employees began their strike at 5 a.m. Wednesday.

Union negotiator McCloskey characterized it as a “one-day walkout.” But Mark Fink, business agent of Local 660, said picketers would stay on the line “as long as it takes.”

The largest gathering Wednesday was in front of the Department of Public Works central yard in Lincoln Heights, where police were summoned after some of the 80 strikers reportedly used their picket signs to hammer on the cars of workers attempting to cross their line.

Police said order was restored quickly, with no arrests and no injuries.

Fink, who led the chanting, whistle-blowing demonstrators in front of the facility at 1525 E. Alcazar St., said the public works employees had decided to join the nurses “because our issues are similar to theirs, but different.

“What this is all about is county management not addressing the issues on the bargaining table,” Fink said. “We’ve been negotiating with them for three months. Now we’re out here instead of negotiating.”

Fink said the public works employees oppose county management proposals that include increases in employee contributions to health benefits and parking fees for workers who now park free.

The nurses are seeking a 10% wage hike now and another 7% next year. The county has offered 5.5% now and 7% next year, plus some fringe improvements.

Several of the picketers wore black armbands in memory of Mario Sanchez, a DWP employee killed June 4 when his safety rope snapped while he was clearing brush and he fell down a sheer rock face beside Pacoima Dam.

The bakers’ walkout left ovens at the North County Correctional Facility cold. The civilian-run bakery produces all the baked goods for the entire 21,000-inmate jail system operated by the Sheriff’s Department.

Sheriff’s Capt. Jerry Skaggs said all but one of the 17 bakers walked out but the bakery items needed in 11 jails had already been cooked.

With its “rolling thunder” campaign of job actions, county employee union officials seem to be following a strategy of greatest impact.

By linking lower profile operations like public works to the high profile job of nurses, they hope to leverage the county for a larger overall settlement.

But the county appears boxed in by its own public relations problems. If it grants too large a settlement, the state Legislature might look unfavorably on county funding, since state employees are being asked to take pay cuts.

The bulk of the Los Angeles County work force has been offered no pay raise this year. City school teachers have been asked to take a 3% pay cut. And state workers have been requested to accept a 5% reduction in salary.

The nurses are in a unique bargaining position. They are among the only county employees being offered pay raises because, according to Dixon, nurses are in high demand and it is difficult to recruit them to work at the county hospitals.

Staff writers Richard Simon, Frederick M. Muir and Claire Spiegel contributed to this story.