Union Calls Strike Today Despite Pact With County : Labor: Leaders insist on walkout because a similar tentative accord unraveled last week. Half the work force could leave jobs.

Los Angeles County’s biggest labor union announced Monday that it had reached a tentative agreement with management over fringe benefits but refused to call off plans for a general strike today by 40,000 workers--half of the county work force.

“The county has offered to meet all union demands,” said a message played Monday on a telephone hot line operated by Local 660 of Service Employees International Union. “But until the Board of Supervisors affirms that offer, we are on strike.”

Richard B. Dixon, county chief administrative officer, said Monday he was surprised and angry to hear that a strike is still planned, even though a tentative agreement has been reached.

“I am truly aghast,” Dixon said.

He said he could not predict how the supervisors would react. But he said, “I would not be surprised if the board said they would have to have labor peace to consider the matter. . . . For the union to accept that agreement and continue a work action seems to be an ill-guided action on their part.”

Supervisor Ed Edelman called union plans to go ahead with a strike “a disservice to the public,” but he could not say whether it would jeopardize the agreement.

Union leaders said they have rented 34 buses to pack the supervisors’ meeting today with hundreds of workers demanding speedy approval of the benefits package. Gilbert Cedillo, general manager of Local 660, said the work stoppages would end when the supervisors express support for the agreement.

The tentative agreement was reached at 5 a.m. Sunday after an all-night bargaining session.

A one-day general strike would affect unionized workers in virtually every county department, from courts, libraries and welfare offices to the Board of Supervisors offices. Shortly after 11 p.m. Monday, pickets started marching outside county offices in Downey.

The union represents half of the county work force of 85,000, including librarians, court reporters, welfare workers and clerks in virtually every department. County officials said they have prepared contingency plans for a strike.

A strike would coincide with a county disaster drill scheduled for today. Nurses who staged a two-day walkout last month before they were ordered back to work by a judge are not expected to join the strike today, union leaders said.

Local 660 officials refused to call off the one-day strike because, they said, they canceled a strike last week in the belief that they had reached a tentative agreement. But a day later, county officials disputed that an agreement had been reached and talks broke off.

Dixon said that, unlike last week, the county’s chief negotiator, Elliot Marcus, has signed off on the tentative agreement.

“We’ve got the nagging doubt after last week’s fiasco that until the board signs off on something, we don’t have a deal,” said union spokesman Steve Weingarten.

“Only when the supervisors publicly affirm what was discussed at the bargaining table will we have a true agreement,” added Cedillo. “Until then, rolling thunder will continue.” Rolling thunder is the union’s strategy of staging rotating walkouts among county departments.

The proposed agreement, which Dixon said will cost the county an additional $140 million over its four-year life, calls for the county to pick up the entire cost of health insurance for many workers and their families. Previously, the county agreed only to pay the full health insurance cost for employees.

Under the proposed contract, the county and the union agreed to a July, 1994, deadline for bringing Local 660 members up to the health benefits level of other county employees, Marcus said.

The union still must work out a pay package for its 21 bargaining units. But both sides said that a tentative agreement on health benefits removes the key stumbling block to a final contract settlement.

Times staff writer George Ramos contributed to this story.