County Judge Bans Nurses From Striking Tuesday

A Riverside County Superior Court judge today barred 250 registered nurses, laboratory scientists and other health-care professionals from taking part in a one-day strike by the county’s second- largest public sector union.

The nearly 6,000-strong Service Employees International Union Local 721 is planning a countywide work stoppage from 7 a.m. Tuesday to 7 a.m. Wednesday, with nearly all members participating, to protest the county’s imposition of a contract that requires them to pay more into their own pension plans, according to union officials.

The demonstrators will position themselves outside the County Administrative Center on Lemon Street during the Board of Supervisors’ regular meeting.

Last week, the county filed a complaint with the California Public Employment Relations Board asking that 274 “essential” employees be prohibited from joining the walkout.

The staffers include registered nurses, laboratory scientists and surgical “scrub” technicians at Riverside County Regional Medical Center and other facilities whose loss would pose a public health threat, county officials said.

The CPERB agreed with the county’s position and filed an emergency motion in Superior Court for an injunction to stop those workers designated essential from participating in the labor action.

A judge this afternoon ruled that 250 of the 274 named employees were vital and could not take part in the walkout, according to county Human Resources chief Barbara Olivier. She said the judge excluded two-dozen scrub techs and licensed practical nurses from the injunction, permitting them to strike if they wish.

The county was hurriedly serving notices to those employees deemed essential to comply with the judge’s order, Olivier said.

She said supervisors, temporary workers and “current employees who do show up for work” should be sufficient to fill gaps created by the work stoppage.

Those honoring the picket lines will include social workers, 911 dispatchers, accountants, clerks and other classified employees.

“We’re concentrating on the Board of Supervisors,” SEIU spokeswoman Tracy Silvera told City News Service. “The buck stops with them.”

According to Olivier, this will be the first county employee strike she can recall in 30 years. The last one involved the sheriff’s deputies’ union in the 1970s.

More than 90 percent of SEIU Local 721’s members voted in November to authorize labor actions “up to and including a strike” to protest the board’s decision to declare an impasse in negotiations over a new three-year collective bargaining agreement.

The board imposed contract terms and conditions following three dozen bargaining sessions over eight months between SEIU negotiators and county representatives, which Olivier characterized as fruitless.

She told CNS that virtually every time the county attempted to gain a concession on expenses, the union counter-offered with requests for salary increases.

With revenue down 25 percent over the last three years, a looming budget deficit of $80 million and an unfunded pension liability of $540 million, the county is tightening its purse strings.

The contract imposed on SEIU members mandated that they pay 3 percent of their pension costs in the current fiscal year, an additional 3 percent next year and 2 percent more in 2013-14. The change is expected to net $23 million in savings to the county, Olivier said.

For the past dozen years, the county has paid the entire amount of an employee’s monthly contribution to the California Public Employees Retirement System.

Union members argue that while their health care premiums and general living expenses have risen, their wages and benefits have stagnated, making any increased cost burden imposed by their employer, the county, unfair and untenable.