Thousands of Workers Back at County Jobs

Thousands of Los Angeles County workers returned to their jobs Wednesday, but hundreds of others manned picket lines on the third day of a limited strike protesting the lack of an agreement between the county and its largest employee union.

Scores of county libraries that were closed Tuesday by a systemwide sickout reopened and welfare payment offices reported they were back to full staffing after two consecutive days of strike activity by about 3,000 members of Service Employees International Union Local 660.

But scattered work stoppages by about 350 workers, mostly clerical employees, were reported at five county departments: facilities management, registrar-recorder, district attorney, probation and sheriff.

Talks between the county and Local 660, meanwhile, produced little, if any, progress in securing a new agreement on fringe and pay issues.

Local 660, representing 40,000 county workers, is the only union that has not reached tentative settlement with the county.

In addition to Local 660, the 1,300-member Los Angeles Professional Peace Officers Assn. is still trying to reach agreement. The association, which is not a union, represents sergeants and lieutenants in the Sheriff’s and Marshal’s departments as well as supervising district attorney investigators and corrections officers.