Benefits Deal May Help End County Dispute : Labor: Tentative agreement on health package is expected to settle contract for 40,000 workers, including nurses.

Negotiators for Los Angeles County and the union representing 40,000 workers said Tuesday they expect a tentative agreement on increased health benefits to clear the way for final settlement of a contract dispute that has led to strikes by nurses, social workers and other county employees over the last 10 days.

The compromise fringe benefit package was announced Monday night, only hours before a threatened general strike by half of the county work force of 85,000. Leaders of Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union said that health benefits had been their primary concern. The county’s offer Monday to pick up a larger share of health insurance costs was the breakthrough that led the union to call off the strike, planned for Tuesday.

Details of the proposed agreement remained murky. Negotiators for both sides said they would return to the bargaining table today to work out particulars, such as a timetable for implementing the benefit improvements.

In addition, the salary issue was still on the table. Union leaders said they expect pay raises for several categories of workers, and county officials insisted they will deny further raises this fiscal year to all employees except nurses at the county’s six public hospitals and 47 health clinics. The county has offered about a 3% pay raise next July 1 for many workers.

The 4,500 nurses are one of Local 660’s 21 county bargaining units. The union also represents social workers, librarians, court reporters, airport managers, public works employees, clerical and technical personnel in a variety of county departments and some coroner’s employees.

Many have contract issues unique to their jobs. Nurses, for example, have raised staff shortages at the hospitals and clinics as a major concern, while social workers are fighting county plans to increase their caseloads.

But the primary issue for Local 660 is health benefits. The roughly $50 million that county negotiators offered Monday night to sweeten the benefits package “is bigger than any of the other money issues left,” according to Sandy Polaski, national bargaining director of the union who is helping Local 660 in the negotiations.

The union claimed victory Tuesday in winning a better deal on fringe benefits, although it appears some employees will still have to pay more for health insurance than under the contracts that expired Sept. 30.

Union leaders also celebrated their apparent success in getting the county to back away from parking fees for employees, in favor of no-fee measures to reduce the number of people driving to work. As an alternative means of complying with air quality regulations, the county and union will develop ride-share plans, four-day work weeks and flexible scheduling.

County officials, meanwhile, asserted that they had laid the groundwork for holding firm on salary issues and denied that Local 660’s threat of a general strike led to the benefits breakthrough.

“Our interest in getting a settlement was the driving force, not the threat of a strike,” said Elliot Marcus, county director of employee relations. “As a matter of fact, the threat of a strike, if anything, had a negative impact because it kind of diverted our energies and our focus.”

Richard B. Dixon, the county’s chief administrative officer, said the concept of phasing in the health benefit improvements over a number of years led to the tentative agreement.

Local 660 General Manager Gilbert Cedillo said the union’s so-called rolling thunder strategy, in which walkouts were staged by individual bargaining units to support negotiating demands of other units, was instrumental in winning concessions from the county.

The county considers itself to be in a strong bargaining position because of high unemployment in the current recession. But it has offered extra money to nurses to be competitive with the private sector during the nationwide nursing shortage.

The pay raise for nurses, however, remains an issue. The union wants 10% immediately for the nurses and 7% in the second and final year of the proposed contract. The county has offered 5.5% now and 7% next year.

The county initially had offered to pay any increases in health insurance costs for nurses. But the nurses refused to accept a deal that excluded other Local 660 workers, who would be required to pay increased insurance premiums out of their own pockets.

When negotiations began, for example, employees covered by the Kaiser health plan were paying $80 of their $370 monthly premium for family coverage, said the union’s Polaski. After the rolling thunder strikes began, county negotiators offered to reduce the employee co-payment to $58 a month. Monday night, according to Polaski, negotiators offered to eliminate the co-payment entirely.

However, some Local 660 employees will pay more for health insurance if they choose different plans.

Local 660 officials say they realized a major goal: parity with other county employees on health benefits.

Under the conceptual agreement, workers also have the option of piggybacking on a spouse’s health insurance plan and trading the county’s health contribution for cash or another option, such as subsidized child care.

Dixon said the health benefits plan would cost the county an additional $50 million a year. Because it is to be phased in, Dixon estimated the cost this fiscal year at $14 million. Any pay hikes granted would add to that figure.

Union leaders continued Tuesday to describe the benefits’ phase-in period as two years--achieving parity with other county workers by the end of the contract. But county supervisors, meeting in closed session Tuesday to discuss the negotiators compromise, apparently had problems with that.

Supervisors declined to comment on specifics, but an aide to one of them, speaking on condition that he not be named, said the board approved a four-year phase-in schedule.

Marcus, the county’s employee relations director, characterized the board’s position as “not exactly what the union wanted” and “not exactly what we recommended.”

“It is somewhere in between,” Marcus said, adding that he does not believe it will block an agreement.

Supervisor Ed Edelman described the outlook for settlement of the contracts as “promising,” and predicted resolution of outstanding issues within the next week.