Deputies, County OK Tentative Contract

Negotiators for Los Angeles County and sheriff’s deputies have reached a tentative contract agreement providing a 10% pay hike over three years and raising hopes of resolving an acrimonious labor dispute that included mass sickouts and allegations of harassing telephone calls to elected officials.

Along with the wage boost, the county agreed to forgo disciplinary action against hundreds of officers allegedly involved in a large-scale “blue flu” outbreak that impeded operations at county jails and courthouses. And the county will not seek criminal prosecution of deputies who allegedly swamped county supervisors’ telephone lines with sexually suggestive and threatening messages.

The accord, said analysts on both sides of the bargaining table, could signal a broader thaw in icy relations between the county and its many labor unions, possibly heading off a potentially crippling general strike threatened for next month.

Significantly, the sheriff’s deal, hammered out late Friday, would represent the first negotiated wage increase for any county employee in three years--a sign that the nation’s largest county government is emerging from a fiscal crisis that left it teetering on the brink of insolvency and mass layoffs two years ago.

“We’ve turned the corner,” said Board of Supervisors Chairman Zev Yaroslavsky, who voiced hope that the tentative pact with the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs would help avert far more serious labor trouble with a separate union representing about half of the county’s 80,000 staffers. “We are in a better position today than we have been for years to treat our employees fairly,” he said.

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Still, a major test is coming. Starting this week, Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union has called for a series of strikes if the county does not offer “significant” wage increases and other improvements for the 40,000 health, welfare and other workers that it represents. Local 660’s contracts with the county expire at midnight Tuesday.

On Monday, the stalled negotiations between the county and Local 660 are scheduled to resume anew.

Local 660’s threatened “rolling” strikes, hitting certain county departments on successive days, are expected to culminate in a call for all employees to stage a general walkout Oct. 7. Such a walkout could shut down hospitals, welfare offices and a host of other critical government functions.

Word of the tentative accord with the deputies heartened Local 660 leaders, who voiced hope that it could represent a softening of county attitudes.

“It is certainly a signal to those of us who haven’t settled that there is money there,” said Local 660 general manager Annelle Grajeda. “Things have changed an awful lot.”

However, she cautioned that Local 660 members--some of whom have gone five years without a raise--would follow through on strike threats if the county does not substantially improve its offer of a 5.5% raise over three years. The union has been seeking three-year pay raises of between 12% and 14%, along with establishment of a $10-million retraining fund to assist employees buffeted by downsizing, changes in welfare law and the ongoing restructuring of the county’s massive health care system.

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“There is just really a very strong sentiment among our members, who are much lower paid than sheriff’s deputies, that they’re geared up to strike,” said Grajeda.

Yaroslavsky, who estimated that the sheriff’s deal will cost the county $20 million next year alone, said there is enough cash on hand for similar accords with Local 660 and other unions. “We have the money,” he said.

The 7,000 deputies and district attorney investigators covered by the tentative pact have been working without a contract since January. The officers have not received a negotiated raise since 1994.

County officials are hopeful that the proposed three-year pact with the sheriff’s deputies will have a stabilizing effect on the county’s relationships with all of its unions, which traditionally have been given one- or two-year contracts.

“The deputies will have peace of mind and the county will know what it needs to set aside each year” for upcoming contracts, Yaroslavsky said. “I think it is a good precedent to set.”

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Under the accord, deputies and district attorney’s investigators would receive a 3% pay hike the first year, 4% the second and a 3% boost in the final year. In addition, officers would receive a 2% training bonus the first year, along with a $2,100 uniform allowance. The annual uniform allowance would return to $1,000 for subsequent years.

The proposed wage increases would boost the base salaries of first-year deputies from $39,600 to $43,560 over three years, and hike the base pay of officers with six years of experience from $50,400 to $55,440.

The deputies’ bargaining team is scheduled to meet Wednesday to outline procedures by which officers will ratify the tentative agreement during a vote. The full Board of Supervisors also must approve a final settlement.

Officials of the Assn. for Los Angeles Deputy Sheriffs, which negotiated the contract, did not comment on the tentative settlement.

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