Nurses Back on Job as Talks Continue

Ending a two-day strike that crippled Los Angeles County hospitals, most nurses returned to their jobs Thursday and their union leaders returned to the bargaining table, while a series of work stoppages continued to spread through county offices.

Pressing its “rolling thunder” strategy, Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union continued to coordinate daylong strikes in various county departments in an effort to win pay raises and better benefits for its 41,000 members.

Dogcatchers and clerical workers in tax collection offices were the latest employees to walk off their jobs for a day and librarians staged a lunchtime picket to demand more wages. The county’s supply warehouse in City of Commerce was also paralyzed.

Civilian personnel--from fingerprint analysts to cooks--were scheduled to strike the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department today.

With nurses returning to work, however, county officials said the other isolated strikes were small and caused minimal fallout. “There’s not very much impact,” said Mary Jung, assistant chief administrative officer for the county.

That could change next week. Union officials said Thursday that thousands of Department of Public Social Services employees will go on strike Monday, an action that threatens to disrupt services for the county’s most needy, including distribution of welfare checks and hotel vouchers for the homeless.

Meanwhile on Thursday, union leaders representing the nurses spent the day in negotiations with county officials as the two sides struggled to forge a contract deal. The nurses, whose contract expired Sept. 30, are seeking an immediate 10% wage hike that they say will bring their salaries closer to those of private-sector nurses. The county has offered 5.5%.

Each side accused the other of breaking off negotiations Monday, but both agreed later in the week to resume talks after a Superior Court judge, citing an “imminent threat” to public health and safety, ordered the nurses back to work.

“The talks are off and running, and they’re scheduled to continue through the weekend,” union spokesman Steve Weingarten said. “That’s a good sign.”

The county’s chief negotiator, Jim Ellman, told reporters: “I think we’re making some progress. I would characterize the attitude on both sides as positive.” However, nurses have threatened to strike again next week if their demands are not met.

Part of Thursday morning’s closed-door negotiations focused on workloads, Weingarten said. Three nurses who work at Harbor UCLA Medical Center told county officials about the difficulties and pressures facing a single emergency room nurse who must set up triage for 150 people in an eight-hour shift.

On Tuesday and Wednesday, the strike shut down emergency rooms and trauma centers as it spread through the county’s six public hospitals and 47 neighborhood clinics. Services were slowly returning to normal Thursday, hospital administrators and county officials said.

Statistics released by the County Department of Health Services showed that only 3.7% of the registered nurses who work at county hospitals and clinics did not report for Thursday’s 7 a.m. shift. Officials said this was close to the normal absentee rate.

The change was most noticeable at Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center. Nearly 36% of the nursing staff stayed away Wednesday, but only 5.7 % were absent Thursday. Nevertheless, the critically needed emergency room remained closed.

The highest absenteeism Thursday was reported at Harbor-UCLA, where almost 10% of the nurses failed to report for duty.

“We are basically up to normal operations,” administrator Ed Foley said. He said some walk-in emergency patients during the strike were told they would have to wait for attention; some waited and others left.

But labor unrest was by no means over.

Strikes Thursday targeted the Animal Control Department, where 40% of its dogcatchers and shelter workers stayed away from work. Of the county’s six animal shelters, only the Agoura Hills facility had a full staff.

“We’ve asked people who’ve asked us to come pick up animals if they could bring them in instead, and they’ve done that,” said Bill Ballenger, animal control spokesman.

“There have been delays . . . (but) it appears so far we’re lucky because it’s been a pretty light day.”

And today, Local 660 representatives are calling on an estimated 1,000 non-sworn personnel to stage a one-day walkout at the Sheriff’s Department. This would include booking clerks, radio dispatchers, property room operators and a host of other civilian employees who work at the Central Jail, Sybil Brand Women’s Jail and Sheriff’s Department offices throughout the county.

On Monday, several thousand employees who determine welfare eligibility for the Department of Public Social Services are scheduled to begin an open-ended strike that could spread to the county’s 31 welfare offices.

The job action could make it difficult to process new welfare applicants and the 1,000 people who pick up welfare checks in person might encounter long lines and delays, officials said. General relief checks are scheduled to be issued Tuesday.

“They may have to wait, but (handing out checks) would be one of our priorities,” said Carol Matsui, the No. 2-ranking official at the social service agency. “We see hundreds of people every day. It would be very difficult to turn them away.”