City’s Employees Preparing for Strike

Unless negotiations resume, a Torrance municipal employees union with about 400 blue collar members will strike or begin a job action in about a week, a union leader said.

Lamont Frederick, president of Local 1117, American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, said workers voted last week 114-55 to reject a contract offer and authorize a strike.

Negotiators for the two sides have met with a state mediator twice in the last two weeks, but have been unable to break an impasse, said Frederick.

City Manager LeRoy Jackson disagreed, saying negotiations are not at an impasse. He said the city is flexible on all contract issues and is willing to continue negotiations.

“We are at a process of negotiations,” he said. “We have made ourselves available for mediations.”

No talks are scheduled to replace the union contract that expired July 1. Negotiations began in April and a state mediator was brought into the talks last week.

The union includes bus drivers, custodians, sanitation workers, mechanics, electricians and other blue-collar employees.

Though there is tentative agreement on a 5.1% annual increase in wages, the sides still have not resolved the union’s demands for an additional paid holiday, payment for unused sick leave, withholding union dues and an increase in health insurance coverage, said Frederick, a civil service officer at the Torrance Police Department.