Union Seeks to Add Work Slowdown to Rolling Strike

By NICHOLAS RICCARDI and BETH SHUSTER

Oct. 5, 2000 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

As the county’s 47,000 unionized service workers prepared to undertake the most sensitive phase of their ongoing single-day strikes today, their leaders upped the ante significantly Wednesday by urging members to engage in work slowdowns, even when they return to their jobs.

The call came as the war of words between county and union officials intensified, bringing into sharp focus the mutual antagonism that has kept the two sides away from the bargaining table for almost a week.

The county will resume negotiating only if Service Employees International Union, Local 660 stops striking or calls off next week’s planned escalation to a countywide walkout, a demand union officials reject.

“Pulling down the picket signs would simply reduce the pressure on the county and the union to reach a settlement,” said Bart Diener, the union’s assistant general manager.

Union leaders say they are interested in returning to the bargaining table only if the county gives an indication it will give greater across-the-board pay increases to its diverse membership, 60% of whom earn less than $32,000 a year. The union wants a 15.5% raise over three years.

The county retorts that it has numerous carrots to offer--especially targeted pay raises for some of Local 660’s members--but cannot increase salaries across the board beyond its offer of 9% over three years, because several other unions already have accepted that amount.

“We’re getting to the point . . . of who’s going to blink first,” said County Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen.

Janssen told reporters Tuesday that the county is willing to resume negotiations, even if the strike continues. However, he backed away from that statement Wednesday, saying longtime county policy holds that negotiations do not occur while employees are on picket lines because county rules call for mediation.

He still offered to meet with labor leaders if they call off their planned countywide strike next week, but that won a cool reception from the union.

“That’s not going to happen,” Diener said.

The day ended with more than 5,000 county workers off their jobs in a wide array of divisions, from the assessor’s office to the Sheriff’s Department, and a new wave revving up for the most difficult job action yet--striking the busy Martin Luther King Jr./Drew Medical Center in Willowbrook, which was scheduled to begin at 12:01 a.m. today.

Today’s strike at King/Drew and county clinics in southern Los Angeles County will move the action to the massive Department of Health Services, where Local 660 has the greatest clout, representing 18,000 of the 22,000 employees. Many not represented by Local 660--including physicians--say they, too, will strike in solidarity. Other hospitals will be struck Friday and next week.

Though the first three days of strikes brought more inconvenience than serious disruptions, county officials are bracing for far more severe effects if the walkout goes countywide.

“If they have a countywide strike that has as many people walking off the job as have been day to day, you can’t plan for that,” Janssen said. “You can’t replace those people.”

On Wednesday, paralegals answered telephones at the public defender’s office and managers fielded inquiries at the assessor’s office. Numerous probation officers stayed home in solidarity with striking nurses and clerical staff. Seventy libraries shut their doors, and nurses, cooks and clerks picketed jails operated by the Sheriff’s Department.

The law enforcement agency, which normally dispenses 6,500 prescriptions to inmates each day, gave out only lifesaving drugs Wednesday and left prisoners without antibiotics and psychotropic medication for one day, officials said.

“It is a severe impact, and I’m not going to soft-pedal it,” said Lt. Richard Mouk, who oversees the department’s medical services in the jails, where doctors and members of Local 660 struck. “We can limp through a 24-hour situation, hopefully, but we certainly wouldn’t want this to continue.”

At the six district attorney’s offices that handle child support cases, lines moved even more slowly than usual, and frustrations mounted even higher.

Oscar Hernandez, 42, of Los Angeles is being billed to support a child he says is not his. But when he made the latest of his fruitless visits to the child support office in the city of Commerce on Wednesday, he was told that the strike had left staffing so low he should go to the West Covina office instead.

One problem--that office, too, was effectively closed due to the strike.

“They have been giving me the runaround for a long time,” he said. “I am so angry.”

Local 660 leaders atop a flatbed truck visited strikers outside the main county building in downtown Los Angeles and at Twin Towers jail, urging them to keep fighting and do little or no work when returning to their jobs today.

“We must use chaos and confusion and make sure that nothing gets done,” union President Alejandro Stephens said into a microphone, his voice hoarse from three days on the picket lines. “We are serious, we are determined and we are going to win the war.”

The war is over how much money the county can afford to give to its largest union.

The union’s 15.5% demand would cost the county $97 million over three years--money the county has in surplus funds that are not stable and are being counted on to ease looming deficits.

Supervisors have said one reason they do not want to grant Local 660 the raise is that the other county unions that have accepted the 9% offer would demand more.

County officials have also rejected an alternative floated by the union--increasing the top range of salary allowed for its members by adding an extra step. Janssen said other unions would also insist on such a boost.

Local 660 officials say they deserve more than other unions because their members are generally the lowest-paid in the county and went longer than many without raises during the downturn in the 1990s. It would take the 15.5% increase or a step increase to make up for those years, they say.

Janssen said the county had more to offer the union, especially for some of its lowest-paid members. But he and county supervisors have said they will not change their baseline 9% offer.

Today’s actions at South Los Angeles health facilities mark the opening of a higher-stakes portion of the rolling strike. Medical officials have scrambled to create contingency plans, hiring temporary nurses and preparing to send patients to private hospitals and clinics.

The county has said it may seek a court order to prevent medical workers from walking off their jobs but will not be able to move until after today because it must demonstrate ill effects from a job action, officials said.

In another move that prepares the county for a court fight, its Employee Relations Commission scheduled an emergency meeting for Tuesday to consider a request by the county to order strikers back to work. The county says the strike is illegal; the union disagrees.

Times staff writers Karima Haynes and Jeannette Sanchez-Palacios contributed to this story.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Strike Schedule

A series of one-day strikes throughout Los Angeles County began Monday. The following are the departments that will be affected and the days the walkouts are planned:

Today

* King / Drew Medical Center

* Southwest cluster of county health centers

* Mental Health Department

Friday

* Harbor / UCLA Medical Center

* South-coastal cluster of county health centers

Saturday

* Beaches and harbors (workers who maintain beaches and restrooms)

Tuesday

* County-USC Medical Center

* Olive View Medical Center