County, Union Reach Agreements for Most Workers

Splitting the difference between a county complaining of tight budgets and a union calling for economic justice, both sides Thursday said they had agreed on new contracts for most of the 47,000 county service workers who staged a brief countywide walkout two weeks ago.

As negotiations continued between county officials and the few bargaining units of the Service Employee International Union’s Local 660 that have yet to agree to a new contract, labor leaders trumpeted tentative three-year agreements for 80% of their members. The preliminary settlements will give most of the workers raises greater than the 9% that county supervisors wanted them to accept, leading union officials to call it a triumph.

“When we started this, we said we wanted a fair share,” said Shirley Carter, a welfare worker who heads the union’s bargaining committee. “We think we’ve gotten that.”

The union did not win the 15.5% raise it sought for all its members--the average is more like 12%, and though some service workers will see pay boosts of up to 20%, about 4,800 will have to accept 9%.

Thus, the county, too, could declare victory:

“We believe this is affordable,” county Chief Administrative Officer David Janssen said, “and we believe this is a very good package for county employees.”

Indeed, Janssen said the deal is what the county planned to offer all along. Its cost remains within the $100 million supervisors have already budgeted for service workers’ pay raises over three years, he said.

And the package of targeted increases for certain employees is generally what Janssen described as the county’s offer long before Local 660 struck--9% for everyone and targeted raises for many employees, coupled with boosts in their pensions.

Indeed, it is standard operating procedure for the county to set raises at one level, then to pile on additional benefits and perks to keep unions happy. And supervisors have an extra interest in keeping Local 660 happy--unlike the drivers and mechanics unions that recently struck the MTA, the county’s largest union has a long track record of working closely with supervisors.

But a few county officials privately said they were startled at how generous the service workers’ targeted raises are. By the union’s calculations they average 12.24%, marginally higher than the 12% average raise in Local 660’s last contract, which also relied heavily on targeted increases.

“We gave a little. They gave some,” said Supervisor Gloria Molina, who heads the board. “Now we have public services back and employees who are hopefully satisfied.”

In fact, about 7,000 members of Local 660, mainly nurses, health workers and librarians, are still without contracts and continued to negotiate Thursday at a union building in Vernon.

Local 660’s members still have to vote on the contracts, a laborious process that union leaders say could take until mid-November. Annelle Grajeda, general manager of Local 660, said she was confident members would approve the deal.

“We think we have the best contract we’ve negotiated in 20 years,” said Bart Diener, assistant general manager of the union.

Besides the targeted raises, which are labeled “inequities” designed to boost the pay of certain civil servants to market levels, the agreement includes an increase in workers’ pension benefits and co-pays of $10 to $15 for medical visits, starting in the third year of the contract.

Lower-paid workers receive most of the targeted raises, something supervisors have long said they would support. Indeed, the agreement extends benefits to part-time county workers and requires the board to pay its permanent employees, at minimum, the $8.36 an hour it requires contractors to pay their workers under the county living wage law. Currently, some library aides earn about $7 an hour without benefits.

The crux of the battle between supervisors and the powerful union, which normally is their political ally, was the base pay raise for service workers, 60% of whom earn less than $32,000 annually.

Most other county unions accepted the 9% raise, including sheriff’s deputies and firefighters. Supervisors argued that giving an across-the-board hike to Local 660 would require them to increase the pay of tens of thousands of other workers.

Local 660 leaders said they would not be satisfied with piecemeal raises for some of their members and demanded 15.5% to make up for pay freezes they accepted during the recession.

On Sept. 29, the day before the union’s contract expired, negotiations broke off. County officials insisted they had more to offer, but Local 660 said that because its members’ contract was up it was time to turn to job actions.

Thus began six days of daylong rolling strikes that crippled one county service at a time. But when the union launched an open-ended countywide strike, thousands of its members crossed picket lines and labor leaders seized on a plea from Cardinal Roger M. Mahony to call off the action. Handfuls of angry union members said they had been betrayed by leadership and continued their walkouts.

By then, the county had broken its policy of not negotiating with striking unions and returned to the bargaining table. On Thursday, Local 660 leaders said they were pleased with how negotiations went.

“We were able to push and shove them enough” so members received more than the 9% baseline, Grajeda said. “The strike was the turning point.”

County officials, not surprisingly, disagreed with that analysis. Molina and Supervisor Zev Yaroslavsky both agreed with Janssen that no more money had been offered because of the strike.

“The Board of Supervisors wasn’t going to punish the 47,000 county employees because of the tactical mistake of their leaders” to strike, Yaroslavsky said. “The end product here is a very fair and judicious agreement.”

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Highlights of 3-Year Contract

* Depending on their jobs, county workers will receive a wide range of wage increases:

*--*

Employees % increase 4,800 9% 1,000 9.5%-10.5% 16,000 11%-12% 23,000 2.75%-14.5% 300 15.5%-20%

*--*

* Boosts in pensions for county workers, including annual cost-of-living adjustments of up to 2%.

* A $10 to $15 co-payment for medical visits, starting in third year of contract.

* Health benefits for part-time workers.

* Minimum $8.36-an-hour pay for county workers to bring government wages up to private sector pay mandated by “living wage” law.

Source: SEIU, Local 660