City Workers Take Salary Contract Fight to LAX

About 90 unionized city workers protested what they called an unfair contract offer at Los Angeles International Airport at the end of the busy Thanksgiving weekend, walking back and forth across the horseshoe-shaped roadway that goes around the airport and shaking signs at motorists.

Members of the Engineers and Architects Assn. traversed a crosswalk on World Way near Terminal 1 for several hours Sunday, obeying the traffic signals as some drivers honked in support -- and others in frustration. Officers with the Los Angeles and airport police departments who were called in to provide extra security for the protest found little to do other than escort the union workers as they crossed the street, calling “Equal Pay for Equal Work.”

“We feel we are being mistreated,” said Raymond DeGuzman, 52, of Mission Hills, an engineer with the Department of Public Works. “We have to fight for our cause.”

The union represents about 8,000 mostly white-collar Los Angeles city employees, including engineers, computer analysts, polygraph operators and some airport workers, whose contract expired more than a year ago. City administrators have offered a new contract with a raise of 2% retroactive to July 1 of this year and 2.25% increases in January of 2006 and 2007.

But the union wants parity with workers from the Department of Water and Power, who do similar work and were given a contract featuring pay raises of 3.25% each year for five years, with the possibility of higher raises if inflation rises.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa could not be reached for comment. A former union organizer himself, the mayor has said that the city cannot afford to match the DWP contract, which was negotiated during the administration of his predecessor, James K. Hahn.

The mayor’s comments angered the association’s leaders, who last week threatened to disrupt traffic at LAX over the hectic holiday period.

“This is the first time our union on the city side has actually had the courage to stand up and say we want equal pay,” said Jaime Parker of Long Beach, a 51-year-old systems analyst whose wife is also a longtime public works employee.

They did not receive a raise last year, technically the first year of this contract, and the city’s proposed contract would not change that.

In support of their parents at the protest, Mary Parker, 11, and her brother James, 12, wore black T-shirts emblazoned with a fanged rattlesnake emerging from the slogan “Will Strike If Provoked.”

Nearly 2 million people were expected to fly in or out of LAX for the holiday. Amid the chaos, some travelers didn’t even notice the demonstration, which was held from 4 to 7 p.m. A few watched the noisy gathering as they waited to meet relatives and friends.

“They picked a good time to do this,” said Erica Puccetti, a senior at the Thacher School in Ojai, who sat with friends on a steel bench next to a pile of luggage.

The union’s executive director, Robert Aquino, said members already voted to strike if the city does not agree to higher pay raises. “This is not the end of it,” he said.

Times staff writer Evelyn Larrubia contributed to this report.