Sickouts Shut Down Some County Offices

Los Angeles County’s labor strife deepened Thursday as employee sickouts virtually shut down some offices of the assessor and public works departments and the union representing 1,500 medical interns and residents threatened job actions over pay and working conditions.

Talks with the doctors’ union broke down Tuesday night, and county officials said they are now readying contingency plans in the event the interns and residents stage sickouts or other protests in the coming weeks.

Members of the Joint Council of Interns and Residents, however, said they will not walk out of emergency rooms or otherwise jeopardize patients. But they have voted to stage “dramatic job actions” beginning Nov. 5 if their demands are not met.

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The unionized interns and residents are the backbone of the county’s public hospital system. They do everything from drawing blood to performing lifesaving surgery, theoretically under supervision of senior attending physicians at the six county medical facilities.

But speaking at a news conference on the steps of the sprawling County-USC Medical Center, many interns and residents said they are routinely forced to work as many as 120 hours a week, receiving pay for only 40.

They also alleged that residents and interns often work 36 hours at a stretch.

This is not only unfair, said Rafael Pizzaro, their union representative, it also jeopardizes public hospital patients.

Over the last two months, Pizzaro charged, two overworked young doctors have crashed their cars on the way home from work. Such exhaustion, Pizzaro said, could have deadly consequences inside the hospitals.

“Imagine how well you’d function after being up for a day and a half,” said one overseer of residents, attending pediatrics physician Dr. Cynthia Stotts.

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Dr. Ronald Kaufman, chief of staff at County-USC, agreed that interns and residents routinely work at least 80 hours a week and often much more, especially those training to be surgeons.

“But in a sense, that it is also what makes these residencies so attractive,” Kaufman said. “When they’re done here, our residents have been exposed to everything and have done everything.”

Kaufman also said that, “while the house staff is pushed, I don’t believe it jeopardizes patients. . . . We are very mindful of that.”

Dr. Lorraine Williams-Smith, president of the joint council, agreed that long hours are a fact of life in large urban hospitals.

“We understand clearly the extra work that is involved, and we are all willing to go the extra mile,” she said. “We believe, however, that we should be fairly compensated”

Williams-Smith said the union is seeking the same 14% average raise that county nurses were offered earlier this month. Some residents noted that those nurses often work fewer hours and make overtime as well.

Williams-Smith also said the union wants some kind of cap on work hours, more medical support staff to help overworked interns and residents and improvements in other “vital patient care issues.”

But the county’s “last and final offer” to the council was a 10% raise and rejection of some of the other demands, which resulted in talks breaking off Tuesday night, Williams-Smith said.

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As such, she said, “We had no choice but to let the public know the conditions under which we work and the unfair manner in which we are being treated.”

Public hospital interns earn about $27,000 a year in Los Angeles County. Residencies, which may last for as long as six years, carry a salary of up to $44,000, Pizarro said. He said that by comparison, interns and residents in New York City earn about $11,000 more a year, and that even those serving in rural and suburban public hospitals around Los Angeles make more money.

Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen, who oversees all labor negotiations, said his staff has offered interns and residents a fair contract proposal, although he would not disclose details.

“We don’t think they have justification” for at least some of their demands,” said Janssen. “They make enough money.”

Janssen added that exhausting work and low pay are part of any doctor’s curriculum, especially in a public hospital.

“Frankly,” he said, “I thought that was just part of the requirement for becoming a doctor.”

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The complaints by interns and residents are but the latest outbreak of labor unrest as the county struggles to work out contracts with its more than 70,000 unionized employees. Those employees are represented by 54 separate bargaining units, each of which may have more than 100 job classifications and pay scales.

As of Thursday, the county had settled with 23 of the larger bargaining units, representing about 55,000 employees. County nurses, who also had complained bitterly about low pay and poor working conditions, settled earlier this month.

On Thursday, however, workers represented by the California Assn. of Professional Employees called in sick, all but closing the Department of Public Works’ Alhambra headquarters, the assessor’s headquarters at the downtown Hall of Administration and at least four public works construction permit offices around the county, according to union spokesman Jeffrey Monical.

Chief Deputy Assessor Gary Townsend said the absence of at least 125 employees “is obviously impacting our ability to deliver services. We have a lot of [assessment] appeals, and there is a lot of work to be done. We hope they get back to the bargaining table.”

About 400 public works employees also called in sick Thursday, most of them engineers and construction inspectors.

Janssen said he expects such sickouts to continue until all county employees have labor contracts.

“Contingency plans have kicked in,” he said, “but there will be some dislocation of services.”

Probation officers and firefighters remain in negotiation, but child social workers walked off the job for several days recently and could do so again.

Janssen said the county has had 18 meetings with the social workers, who are represented by Services Employees International Union, Local 535, but have yet to make progress on their demands to have their workloads significantly reduced.

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County Labor at a Glance

About 55,000 of the county’s 70,000-plus unionized employees have reached tentative contract agreements with the county, subject to ratification votes.

* Clerical workers--Covered by the Service Employees International Union, Local 660, which represents about 40,000 county employees through 15 separate bargaining units plus two more for court personnel. The 15,000 clerical members include many classes of typist clerks, escrow clerks and support staff. They will receive 10% plus an average 2% inequity bonus where bonuses are given.

* Administrative and technical workers--About 4,000 employees--also in Local 660--are split among 100 classes and will receive 10% plus an average 2% inequity bonus where given.

* Registered nurses--About 5,000 Local 660 nurses will get 10% and an average 4.5% in inequities, although some, such as operating room nurses, will get a total raise of 21%.

* Welfare eligibility workers--About 6,000 Local 660 employees will get 10% and between 2% and 3% in inequity bonuses where given.

* Artisan and blue-collar workers: About 2,600 employees, including storehouse workers, traffic signal installers, business machine technicians and public works crew leaders, will get 10% plus an average of about 2% in inequity bonuses where given.

Settlement officially ratified by rank and file:

* Sheriff’s deputies--Represented by the Assn. of Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs. About 6,800 deputies received 10% plus a 2% inequity bonus. Another 1,300 sheriff’s supervisory personnel and district attorney’s investigators represented by the Professional Peace Officers Assn. received the same raise.

As of Thursday, these county employees did not have tentative settlements with the county:

* Probation officers--About 3,100

* Child welfare social workers--About 2,600

* Firefighters--About 2,500

* Public works professionals and engineers--About 1,600

* Medical interns and residents--About 1,500

* Assessor’s office appraisers--About 600

* Lifeguards--About 500

Compiled by Times staff writer Josh Meyer with information supplied by various county unions and Kenneth Miller, the county’s chief labor negotiator and head of its employee relations office.