Union Says Talks With County Stalled : Labor: It claims county hasn’t budged on contract offer that would mean 25% pay cut for workers.

With 20 days remaining until the county labor contract expires, no progress has been made in negotiations between management and the labor union representing about 12,000 San Diego County workers, union officials charged Tuesday.

Eliseo Medina, executive director of the San Diego Service Council, Service Employee’s International Union, said the county is sticking to an initial proposal that would amount to a 25% reduction in take-home pay for the 12,000 workers for whom the umbrella labor organization is bargaining.

Medina charged that the county is seeking give-backs from employees to help balance its budget. The union wants a 5.5% salary increase for its members.

“We have been meeting now for five months, and there’s been no progress,” Medina said. “They are looking at employees as a funding source, not as a resource.”

The county’s chief negotiator, who confirmed that the county is seeking many of the cutbacks, said much of the delay in negotiations has been caused by review of the 181 proposals offered by the union and an unusual bargaining process.

The union proposals for wage increases and other benefits would cost the county $58 million if they were adopted, said Madge Blakey, the county’s labor relations manager.

In addition, the SEIU-led team has been broken up into 14 separate bargaining units--one for county-wide issues and 13 others for individual employee groups seeking raises and other improvements.

In all, the county is seated at 18 separate bargaining tables, Blakey said. In addition to the 14 units representing about 12,000 county workers, the county is also negotiating with four other labor unions representing sheriff’s deputies, deputy district attorneys, district attorney investigators and Superior Court clerks.

Facing another major cash shortage, the county is proposing a $1.9-billion budget for fiscal 1992-93. That spending blueprint is about 1% less than the current fiscal year spending plan, which also ends June 30. About 100 of the county’s 15,000 employees face the possibility of layoffs, Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen said Tuesday.

Medina contended that the county has warned workers of wage cuts which he believes could reach 5% annually if state funding for the county is slashed sharply.

County negotiators have also proposed a cutback in a previously negotiated pact under which the county pays for employee contributions into a retirement system and a 25% to 50% decrease in the county contributions toward health insurance premiums for part-time workers, Medina said.

The county wants the right to impose mandatory work furloughs on employees, make workers pay to park in county parking lots, freeze wage increase steps and force employees to pay the full increase in health insurance premiums this fall, he said.

In all, the proposals would cost a typical clerk supervisor $364 of his approximately $2,200 in gross monthly earnings, Medina claimed.

Blakey, who declined to discuss specifics of most county proposals, said there is no parking fee proposal on the table. But labor and management may have to change parking rules to comply with new air pollution control regulations being considered by the Board of Supervisors, she said.

Requiring employees to pay part of their earnings into the system will allow them to be vested in the retirement system at an earlier date and collect their pensions if they retire early, Blakey said.

With the state facing a budget deficit estimated at $10.7 billion, the county needs to be able to cut salaries if it is hit with a devastating reduction in state funding this fall, Blakey said.

“We reserve the right to take whatever action (is necessary), up to and including cutting salaries,” she said.

Union employees could continue to work under their existing contract while negotiations continue, even after the pact expires June 30, officials for both sides said. Medina said the union’s leadership will meet June 27 to discuss its options.