Local News in Brief : Del Mar

The Service Employees International Union local is calling for a boycott of the off-track betting operations slated to begin at the Del Mar Race Track Wednesday, the union announced Friday.

Union spokesman Bill Myers said the Del Mar Fair Board has refused to bargain fairly with the union despite a provision in the off-track bill signed by Gov. George Deukmejian calling for such bargaining.

Local 102 represents 250 temporary workers during the track’s 43-day thoroughbred meet. The state bill calls for race tracks sponsoring off-track betting to negotiate with unions that represent employees at the tracks’ own racing seasons, although it does not mandate that agreements be reached.

Myers said the union will hold a news conference Monday to discuss boycott tactics.

Labor strife is nothing new to the fair board. In 1984 union workers picketed the Del Mar Fair in a contract dispute.

Fair Board President Raymond Saatjian said that fewer than a dozen jobs--none of them for pari-mutuel clerks--are at stake in the current dispute. He said the new law creates a conflict between Local 102 and the California State Employees Assn., which represents full-time Fair Board employees.

Saatjian predicted that the boycott “will have no impact whatever” on off-track betting and said the Fair Board is prepared to hire replacements if other union workers refuse to cross a picket line.