County On The Edge : Union Plans Campaign to Avert Layoffs

Fighting to avert layoffs despite the bleakest budget outlook in memory, Los Angeles County’s largest employee union is mapping out an unprecedented multimedia campaign whose tactics may include putting pressure on at least one key elected official--Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky.

The campaign, which will include radio, cable and TV ads, will initially focus on the Service Employees International Union Local 660’s public-spirited rhetoric about saving county jobs and services. The union says it wants to make taxpayers aware of how the arcane language of statisticians could soon mean some very painful choices that will dramatically affect their quality of life.

But a strategy proposal obtained by The Times indicates that the union local--which represents half of the county’s more than 88,000 employees--could resort to some tough tactics in its effort to save jobs.

Among those efforts: targeting supporters of the liberal Yaroslavsky by tying him to conservative efforts to slash services to the poor, and by quietly creating and spearheading a coalition “under the banner of a civil-sounding organization such as ‘Emergency Committee to Save L.A. County’ or ‘Citizens to Protect Economic Health of L.A. County,’ ” according to a working campaign document prepared for the union by a Santa Monica-based political consultant.

“Since Yaroslavsky is a pivotal vote on the board, it is essential to put pressure on him,” says the June 5 campaign memo, prepared by Galanty & Co. of Santa Monica, which is working for the union. “His contributors and liberal supporters will respond to a message that deals with the moral and social issue of any cuts.”

Under a budget proposal unveiled Monday, county Chief Administrative Officer Sally Reed said more than 18,000 county positions could be eliminated because of a projected budget deficit of more than $1 billion. But it will be the five county supervisors, including Yaroslavsky, who ultimately will decide in the coming months exactly how many unionized county employees will lose their jobs.

One union official said Monday that the campaign document is just part of a broad strategy that is being updated constantly. He also said the local would be just one component of a large and diverse group of community organizations that are uniting to save jobs and services.

Gilbert Cedillo, general manager of the union local, said it is too early to comment on the campaign and whether supporters of Yaroslavsky or other supervisors would be targeted in TV and radio ads.

Publicly, union local leaders launched their campaign Monday, appearing on the steps of the county Hall of Administration and elsewhere to say they hope to persuade the public to pressure supervisors to reject the deep cuts Reed has proposed. Those cuts include the closing of the massive County-USC Medical Center and other clinics that serve the poor.

The local also made its presence known Monday at various news events staged both to explain the proposed budget and to decry its deepest cuts. Perhaps its most attention-getting tactic was staging a large demonstration at County-USC.

“We will not be shown the door gently,” said Steve Weingarten, spokesman for the local. “We are fighting for our jobs, but more important, we are fighting for the future of Los Angeles County.”

Weingarten contended that the union is not being self-serving, that the cuts would have a devastating ripple effect on workers throughout Southern California.

Union officials said the blitz would be the union’s costliest and biggest “educational campaign” ever. The campaign proposal said the effort could cost more than $500,000.

Cedillo would not confirm the proposed budget contained in the memo, saying only: “We are committed to doing all that we can to utilize all our resources to avoid this impending disaster for all of Southern California.”

Specifically, the local says it hopes to convince citizens and supervisors that an increase in sales tax, taxes on sporting events and movies, and other taxes and fees, coupled with borrowing, pork-paring and the selling or leasing of county assets can help the county parry its potential fiscal meltdown.

The union’s embracing of higher taxes--which are politically unpopular and will be a tough sell--underscores the depth of the county’s crisis. On the other hand, the union believes that a slashing of a fifth of the county’s work force and accompanying services will prove far more costly in the long run.

According to the union’s private analysis of the county’s budget problems--a copy of which was also obtained by The Times--residents would lose essential health services, child protective services, lifeguards and parks and museums if proposed cuts are made.

Beyond the immediate impact, the union analysis predicts that the closure of hospitals, clinics, parks, libraries and museums would make the county an “unattractive place to live and work,” chasing away businesses and other revenue sources.

Yet the sobering language in the analysis supports Reed’s contentions that the creative quick-fixes the county has employed in the past are no longer enough. “Since 1993, L.A. County has been able to hold the safety net together using a variety of onetime funding sources, including a $90-million loan from county unions,” it states. “However, we are at the end of the line.”

The union analysis suggests that the county should lobby the state to take measures that would ultimately usher more money into the county’s depleted coffers. They include rejecting Gov. Pete Wilson’s proposed tax cut, imposing higher taxes on wealthy taxpayers and sealing off tax loopholes for some businesses. It also suggests that the Board of Supervisors seek authority from the state to enact a litany of local taxes.

Weingarten said the union has “never mounted an external campaign like this, to speak to the people of Los Angeles directly. But this threat doesn’t compare to anything we’ve ever had before.”

The union local’s seriousness about fighting the cuts can be seen in the campaign proposal, which talks about pressuring Yaroslavsky by circulating “an emotional piece about cutting services to children and the poor outside his district” that could run on cable TV on the Westside, in the liberal heart of his district.

And by creating a civic-sounding umbrella group dedicated to saving jobs, “this would project a positive image of union members who care about the taxpaying public, the health of the economy and jobs,” the proposal says. “It is a union of people willing to seek solutions to the county financial problems while fighting to ensure the continuation of essential services for the people in Los Angeles County.”

Times staff writers Richard Simon and Jeffrey L. Rabin contributed to this story.