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County’s Tentative Accord With Unions Avoids Severe Pay Cuts

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TIMES STAFF WRITER

In a move that averts a potentially crippling general strike, Los Angeles County and its largest labor unions announced Friday that they have reached a tentative agreement on new contract terms that include some employee concessions but avoid deep wage and benefits cuts for thousands of county workers.

The agreement was hammered into final form about 2:30 a.m. Friday after 10 days of intense state-mediated negotiations between the county and unions representing about 70,000 of the its 80,000-member work force.

For the record:

12:00 a.m. Sept. 12, 1993 For the Record
Los Angeles Times Sunday September 12, 1993 Home Edition Metro Part B Page 3 Column 1 Metro Desk 1 inches; 31 words Type of Material: Correction
Union leader--In some editions of Saturday’s Times, a photo caption incorrectly identified a union representative. He was Gilbert Cedillo, general manager of the Service Employees International Union, Local 660.

“This agreement does not represent what men and women should have in the county, but it represents the best we can do,” said Gilbert Cedillo, general manager of the Service Employees International Union, Local 660, which represents about 40,000 county workers.

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Cedillo, along with a throng of tired but jubilant union leaders, made the announcement during a news conference at Local 660’s Downtown headquarters.

“County employees ought to be able to maintain a decent living standard and dignity and we believe for our members we have protected that,” Cedillo added.

The county’s contract with Local 660 was set to expire Sept. 30.

The pact must still be approved by rank-and-file members and the Board of Supervisors. But as word of the agreement filtered through the county Hall of Administration on Friday, employees who gathered in small knots reacted with applause and thumbs-up signs.

County officials were more subdued. Chief Administrative Officer Harry L. Hufford released a statement saying, “We have reached tentative agreement. . . . These agreements are subject to ratification by the principals. . . . It is inappropriate for us to make further comment . . . until the ratification processes are completed.”

Hufford declined to spell out what impact the agreement will have on the county’s financial position. Elliot Marcus, the county’s director of labor relations and its chief negotiator, said, “I believe we cut the best deal that could be cut.”

Some county officials were saying privately, however, that the accord, while saving millions temporarily, still leaves the county in a precarious position. Others felt that the county’s hand was forced by a number of pressures, including the strike by city Department of Water and Power workers. The two DWP unions won a 9% pay raise over four years in a settlement announced Thursday.

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Supervisor Deane Dana said he was happy that a tentative settlement had been reached and that a strike would be averted, but he said he did not know the full details and declined to comment further.

An aide for Supervisor Gloria Molina said she needed more time to review the agreement before commenting. Supervisor Yvonne Brathwaite Burke could not be reached for comment. Two other supervisors, Mike Antonovich and board Chairman Ed Edelman, were out of the country.

The county had been demanding that the workers take an 8.25% pay cut and give up some medical and dental benefits to help balance a $13.5-billion budget. Negotiations had assumed critical importance because savings from the proposed cuts--about $215 million--have already been figured into the budget. But the outline of the proposed agreement appears to contain most of the elements of a package of proposals offered by the unions, including provisions that call for workers to do without overtime pay and forgo scheduled salary increases.

Union leaders declined to say just how much the whole package is worth, but its individual provisions appear to fall short of the $215-million gap. Union and county officials said Friday that they were uncertain where the rest of the money would come from.

The county had been negotiating on two fronts--with Local 660, from which the county had sought to extract salary cuts, and with a coalition of 13 unions that represent 30,000 other county employees, including sheriff’s deputies and firefighters. Those unions have binding contracts that do not allow the county to roll back salaries. However, the county had been attempting to reduce medical and dental benefits to achieve the equivalent of an 8.25% pay cut.

Phil Ansell, a representative of SEIU Local 535 and a spokesman for the coalition, said the county has agreed not to cut its contributions to workers’ medical and dental plans, but he said details of the agreement would not be disclosed until next week, after members had a chance to review them.

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However, other sources said the coalition’s concessions parallel those made by Local 660.

Provisions of Local 660’s settlement include:

* Agreement by union members to do without overtime pay for a year, which would save $28 million to $30 million, according to union officials. The overtime could be traded for time off or be paid in cash on Aug. 1, 1995.

* Deferral of 2% pay raises for about 30,000 employees who were scheduled to receive them, for a saving of about $20 million. The deferred compensation could be traded for time off or received as cash on Aug. 1, 1995.

* Suspension from Oct. 1 through June 30, 1994, of the county’s matching contribution to employees’ savings plans at a saving of about $2.3 million, according to union officials.

* Suspension of the county’s sick leave buy-back plan from Jan. 1, 1994, through June 30, 1994. Union officials could provide no estimated cost savings.

* Continuation of free parking during the term of the agreement.

* The county’s pledge to allow attrition, transfers and voluntary demotions before implementing further layoffs.

With the county facing its worst fiscal crisis ever, county officials in July pieced together a shaky budget plan that called for deep cuts in health and welfare services, a steep reduction of grants to general relief welfare recipients, closing scores of libraries and about 2,000 layoffs, most of them among employees at 33 health clinics that were scheduled to close.

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On Tuesday, a Superior Court judge ruled in the county’s favor, holding that the general relief cuts are legal. But that has been one of the county’s few victories. Nervous officials were forced to wait until the eleventh hour for the outcome of two key legislative bills that would provide money to keep open the libraries and health clinics.

One, AB 1038, which would release $72 million in tobacco tax funds to maintain health clinics, won final approval by the Legislature on Friday and was on its way to Gov. Pete Wilson’s desk for signature. The library bill, SB 566, which would create an assessment district to raise funds for libraries, was also expected to be approved but had not been voted on as the session wound down late Friday.

Clearly one of the biggest hurdles had been negotiations with Local 660, the largest of the county’s employee unions, representing clerical staff, nurses, librarians and paramedics, among others.

Relations between the two sides reached a low point in early August when the county declared an impasse and broke off negotiations.

Meanwhile, Local 660 had begun a series of work actions and union officials began playing their trump card, the threat of a general strike if agreement was not reached.

On Aug. 31, about 2,500 union members voted overwhelmingly to authorize a strike. The vote followed a rousing march attended by about 7,540 county workers and community and religious leaders and led by the Rev. Jesse Jackson.

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The next day, negotiations resumed, this time with a mediator.

At Friday’s union news conference, Charles Hamson, chairman of Local 660’s main bargaining committee, praised county managers for withdrawing their demands for wage and benefits cuts.

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