Cable TV Firm Says Unionists Slashed Lines in Telecast of Game

The cutting of a cable television company’s power lines, blacking out the second half of Sunday’s Lakers championship game for 20,000 Eagle Rock-area customers, prompted charges from the company Monday that a “gangster” element in its workers’ labor union is committing sabotage.

Leonard Tow, president of Century Southwest Cable Television Inc., which serves 150,000 subscribers in the Los Angeles area, said he is convinced that this and 29 other claimed acts of vandalism against the company in the Southland since January are directly connected to its contract negotiations with the Communication Workers of America.

“I could be dead wrong, but that’s how I feel,” declared Tow, who said that both the contract talks and the vandalism started at the same time and that many of the attacks have occurred during crucial negotiating periods, cutting off viewing of such other events as the Super Bowl and the Academy Awards.

“I come from a poor family,” the executive said. “I’m a great supporter of organized labor, but I can’t countenance this form of gangsterism. . . . Machetes, cable clippers and sledgehammers are being used to destroy our communications system.”

Tow’s charges were rebutted Monday by the area director of the CWA, a branch of the AFL-CIO, and the union’s chief negotiator suggested that disgruntled fired managers of the company, not any of its 120 workers, may be responsible for the acts, which are under Los Angeles police and FBI investigation.

“We have made very clear to the company that the union itself has not condoned any violence,” said Reid Pearce, the union director. “It’s my understanding the service of this particular company has been pretty poor for quite some time. (The perpetrators) may be hiding behind the negotiations.”

However, the Communications Workers’ negotiator, Rudy Mendoza, added: “One good way of stopping this activity is to get a contract that could be accepted by the membership, so we can get back to a normal way of operating the business.”

Century Southwest Cable’s negotiator, San Francisco attorney Allen Berk, responded: “I hope he’s not implying he knows about the sabotage and it will stop when the contract is signed.”

Tow and Berk said Monday that possible federal felonies are involved in what they described as sabotage against company property, and they said the vandalism is so precise and directed at such critical points that it has to be the work of insiders.

Acts of Vandalism

But an FBI spokesman responded that a preliminary inquiry has not yet established that any federal crimes have been committed, and a sergeant in the Los Angeles Police Department’s labor relations department said he considers the acts vandalism and not sabotage.

“The Penal Code sections involved define sabotage as an act of terrorists or subversives,” said Sgt. George Rich. “There is no evidence here that we have either.”

Rich and his superior, Lt. Jim Margetich, said the police investigation is only beginning and that, thus far, there are no suspects. “The chances are it would be somebody involved with the company, but who knows?” Margetich said.

An Hour to Fix

Sunday’s disruption of the Lakers’ game occurred about 1:30 p.m. It took the company about an hour to fix the wire cutting, which occurred at a power pole in an alley between Hollywood Boulevard and Vermont Avenue, near the company’s hub site for the transmissions to the Eagle Rock district. By that time, the game was over.

“This is very serious business,” said Tow, who ordered an increase in the company’s posted reward from $100,000 to $250,000 for information leading to the apprehension and conviction of the perpetrators.

“We’re a public service company,” Tow said. “Every member of our organization should be imbued with a desire to serve the public.”

The contract talks began after Pacific Southwest Cable purchased what was formerly known as the Theta system at the beginning of the year from Westinghouse, automatically abrogating a three-year labor agreement that was in force.

Both sides agreed Monday that most of the issues in the talks have been resolved. But salary levels and certain classifications of workers remain in dispute.