Sheriff May Hire New Firm to Replace Trusties

One week after they replaced more than 200 low-wage jail workers in the midst of a union drive with inmate laborers, sheriff’s officials acknowledged Tuesday that the work involved may go to another private company.

Supervisor Gloria Molina cautioned that if the Sheriff’s Department changes its mind again and replaces inmates with contracted, nonunion employees, the action would amount to union-busting.

“In any other framework, in any other business, this would be characterized, in my opinion, as union-busting,” said Molina, adding that she doubts the department can continue to use inmates. “You have destroyed every single opportunity of this group of people to organize as a work force.”

Assistant Sheriff Larry Waldie told the Board of Supervisors that he doubts another company can provide food and laundry services in the county’s jails for less than it costs to use inmate laborers. However, he did not rule out hiring another contractor, who he said currently is weighing a bid to provide the services. Waldie also denied that the employees’ union drive was a factor in the department’s decision to lay off 207 workers earning about $6 an hour without health insurance.

“The intent of the Sheriff’s Department was to get the right number of people to do the job and save the Sheriff’s Department money,” Waldie said. “There was absolutely no union issue in our mind.”

The contention stems from a decision by the workers--employees of a company under contract to the Sheriff’s Department--to contact the United Food and Commercial Workers, Local 770, in hopes of unionizing and getting better pay.

The contract between the company, Interim Services, and the Sheriff’s Department expired in April. Waldie said that Interim’s renewal proposal was unacceptable and that the county was unsuccessful in trying to go to a month-to-month contract while it searched for another company.

He said the department had to turn to inmate laborers, who an analysis showed would save $400,000 a year over the low-wage workers who had cleaned the jails for more than five years.

“We were kind of a pawn in this,” Waldie said. “We feel badly.”

But Jim Rodriguez, executive vice president of Local 770, said the Sheriff’s Department never told the union it was choosing inmate laborers and that Sheriff Lee Baca had even told them there had been trouble with using jail trusties years ago.

Rodriguez said that if the department uses inmate workers for a period, then shifts to a private company again, it will not only have dodged having to deal with a union, but also sent a message to its new employees.

The Board of Supervisors would have to approve any new contract for work in the county’s jails.

The men and women who once worked in Twin Towers and at the Pitchess Honor Rancho are now unemployed, Rodriguez said. But he vowed to press on.

“They may not have an employer,” he said, “but they have a union. And we are not going to let this rest until justice is served.”