Puts Off Ruling on Forcing City Employees Back to Work : Judge Orders Talks in 4-Day Detroit Walkout

Negotiators for both the city and its 7,000 striking union workers were ordered back to the bargaining table Saturday by a Wayne County circuit judge, but the city lost its bid for an immediate court injunction that would have forced garbage collectors, bus drivers and other employees to end their four-day walkout.

Judge Sharon Tevis Finch ordered the city and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees’ Council 25, which represents Detroit’s striking workers, to resume contract talks for at least four hours Saturday afternoon and eight hours today in an effort to break the logjam in the negotiations.

Hearings Recessed

Finch, despite objections from the city’s attorneys, also recessed until Monday hearings on the city’s request for an emergency back-to-work order.

Before Saturday’s court hearing, the two sides had met late into the night Friday. The bargainers did report some progress, but they were still unable to agree on the key issue in the dispute: the union’s demand for a 26% pay increase over the next three years.

The city has offered a 2% wage hike in the first year of the agreement, with future raises tied to the city’s financial health. But union members feel they deserve more, especially because Mayor Coleman Young received a 44% raise in January, to $115,000, which made him the nation’s highest-paid mayor.

The strike, the first in Detroit since 1980, has not affected police or fire services in the nation’s sixth largest city. But during one of the hottest weeks of the summer, Detroit is only able to offer limited garbage disposal at six central dumping sites. The city’s bus system has also been shut down, although most suburban commuters rely on bus service from a regional transit authority that has not been affected by the strike.

Detroit’s sanitation workers and bus drivers are not members of the striking union council, but their unions are honoring its picket lines.

City officials are also warning that a lengthy strike may interfere with the Aug. 5 primary elections in Michigan, including the precinct delegate selection process that has become the focus of attention by Republican presidential hopefuls.

Voting in Doubt

Because employees in the city’s Election Department are on strike, absentee ballots cannot be processed and voting booths cannot be prepared for Election Day, according to Ed Wilson, the city’s election director. He has warned that voting in Detroit may have to be del1635345764officials insist that the city must find a way to hold the primary on the same day as the rest of the state.