Massive strike in LA as thousands walk off jobs

By Sarah Tippit and Twila Decker

Los Angeles, California, Oct. 4— Strike fever gripped Los Angeles Monday as 1,000 county workers began the first in a series of rolling walkouts that could lead to a general strike and 4,400 bus and train drivers remained off the job for the 17th consecutive day.

Nearly 1,000 county service workers from the Registrar’s office and animal control unit, angered by contract disputes with their employer, the Los Angeles County government, stayed off the job in a one-day strike, kicking off the first in a series of rolling walkouts planned by county workers.

If a contract is not reached, the strike could lead to a full-fledged walkout on Oct. 11 by more than half of the county’s 87,000 workers.

Meanwhile, a stoppage by 4,400 bus and train operators entered its 17th day Monday as the county continued to lose about $2.3 million in revenues each day.

Negotiators for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) and United Transportation Union (UTU) returned to bargaining Monday after ending an impasse over the weekend and saying they were optimistic about reaching a settlement within days.

Both the transportation union and the Service Employees International Union Local 660 (SEIU), representing county workers, are fighting for higher wages among other issues.

Contracts covering 47,000 nurses, paramedics, custodians, artisans, library and other county employees expired at midnight Saturday and county workers said they were prepared to strike depending on the outcome of negotiations.

“The idea here is to step up pressure on the board of supervisors while not having such a disastrous impact on services to the public,” SEIU spokesman Mark Tarnawsky said.

On Monday, workers from the Registrar’s Office who perform weddings, record property deeds and titles, and prepare ballots walked out, along with animal control employees.

Among those planning to take part in future “rolling strikes” are librarians, clerks, sheriff’s department workers, paramedics and more than 20,000 hospital workers, including nurses.

Tarnawsky said SEIU is opposed to a county offer of a 9 percent wage increase over three years and instead, the workers are seeking a 15.5 percent raise over that period.

Already, many employees at the Pomona office of the Los Angeles County Department of Children and Family Services walked off the job for one day Tuesday as part of the strike action.

“It’s not disrupting any services to the children,” said Judy Fell, a clerical worker in the department and a strike captain. “The social workers are still here. A lot of them are telecommuting, so they didn’t have to cross our lines.”

Fell and other workers held a daylong rally outside their offices in Pomona to bring public attention to their cause. Fell estimated that about 50 or 60 support staff in Pomona stayed off the job, and several traveled to Los Angeles for protest actions there.

Fell said all of Pomona’s support staff participated in the action. A job action planned for Thursday would disrupt or close operations at Martin Luther King Jr.-Drew Medical Center and other county-run health facilities. If the strike threatens public health and safety the county will ask a judge to intervene, Los Angeles County spokeswoman Judy Hammond said. “We’ll go and ask for a temporary restraining order. That would mean they would have to go back to work,” she said.

Other agencies scheduling protests in the coming days include the Probation Department, the Department of Health Services and the offices of the district attorney and public defender.

Should the issue not be settled, all workers could strike Oct. 11, and this time stay out for longer than a day.

Regional numbers were not available, but an estimated 1,300 in the department countywide left their jobs Tuesday, said Neil Rincover, spokesman for the department of Children and Family Services.

“I think they’ve had pretty good participation from their union,” he said.

The department made sure the safety needs of children were covered during the one-day action, Rincover said. While support staff at headquarters and the regional offices was sacrificed, the emergency command lines were staffed and the Live Scan, used to run background checks on potential foster parents or others asked to take care of children on an emergency basis, remained active.

The department is developing plans on how to conduct business should an actual strike hit Oct. 11, Rincover said. “A one-day walkout is a little bit easier to handle than a permanent walkout,” Rincover said.

Mechanics refuse to cross picket line

Nearly all the Metropolitan Transportation Authority’s mechanics continued to honor striking bus drivers’ picket lines Tuesday, a stinging public rejection of their union president’s request that they return to work. Only eight of nearly 2,000 mechanics appear to have heeded their leader’s call to resume work during the morning shift. That means the MTA’s 2,000 buses and its Metro Rail trains won’t roll for at least another few days. Moreover, new worker initiatives may include a shutdown of the Metrolink commuter rail service.

A Teamsters Union official said mechanics who service Metrolink commuter trains may walk off the job, too. If they do, the Teamsters, who have been honoring bus drivers’ picket lines and are a constituent union of the AFL-CIO, expect MTA unions to honor their picket lines. That would have the potential to shut down Metrolink, a 416-mile rail network that runs commuter trains into downtown Los Angeles from Riverside, San Bernardino and Ventura counties.

“A strike vote was taken last Friday by the [Metrolink] mechanics, and they mean business,” said Don Thornsberg, an official with Teamsters Local 986.

Thornsberg said he is applying for strike sanctions from the Orange County and Los Angeles County labor federations.

The spread of the labor struggle to Metrolink stems from a decision during the summer by about 100 Metrolink mechanics to affiliate with the Teamsters. The mechanics work for a Canadian company, Bombardier, based in Montreal. Bombardier in turn has a contract with Metrolink to service its trains.

Thornsberg said the company is refusing to negotiate such basic American worker rights as sick pay. He said the mechanics are also fighting for a significant pay boost.

“If we don’t get proper pay and sick days, we are going on strike,” said Thornsberg.

On Monday, Neil Silver, president of the mechanics’ Amalgamated Transit Union, asked the union’s 1,860 mechanics to go back to work and stunned members of his union and the drivers, creating widespread anger within union ranks.

Many union members learned about the move through radio or television reports, and said they considered that a breach of union protocol. That point was driven home again and again by the United Transportation Union’s Williams, who said he would never take an action like that without polling his members.

On the picket lines, Edward Rivera, a 16-year MTA mechanic, echoed the sentiments of others walking with striking drivers when he said, “We’ve been told for years you never cross a picket line, so I am here to support the drivers.”

“Neil Silver did what he had to do,” Rivera said. “We are doing what we have to do.”

Drivers applauded the show of support by mechanics.

“The tree has been split apart, but the roots run deep and are as healthy as ever,” said Aiden Avila, a driver walking a picket line on Mission Road near downtown Los Angeles.

Mechanics and supervisors trying to return to work at the MTA on Tuesday morning were stopped in their cars by co-workers chanting, “Scab go home!” and “Shame on you!” About 100 protesters, gathered outside the MTA Central Maintenance Facility, were closely watched by sheriff’s deputies as they chanted. They were successful in turning some of the cars around. Instead of reporting to work, some mechanics parked and joined the protest.

As the morning wore on, the mechanics and bus drivers grew increasingly angry at Silver.

“Everybody feels he sold us out,” said Manuel Chavez, a shop steward. “We’ll be in it until the end. We don’t want any backdoor deals.”

“We will all go back to work together,” said Tom Lujan, another shop steward. “I am still shocked that our president would ask us to cross a picket line. It is ridiculous.”

Source: Los Angeles Times