Pacific Bell Strike Delays Telephone Services in OC : Managers Doing Jobs of Workers

A strike by nearly 5,000 Pacific Bell employees in Orange County slowed directory assistance, operator help and other telephone services this morning as managers replaced workers who were on picket lines outside company facilities throughout the county.

“Service is not what customers would expect on a day-to-day basis, but it’s still pretty good,” said Linda Bonniksen, a Pacific Bell spokeswoman. “There’s still some training left, but fortunately a lot of managers did these jobs before they became managers.”

Although the strike by members of the Communications Workers of America and two other unions has closed some company offices and delayed some 411 directory-assistance calls by five minutes or more, Pacific Bell reported no unusual delays.

“Customers are postponing calling in for new service,” Bonniksen said. “They’re pretty much realizing our limitations.”

Although operators, repairmen and other workers are on strike, Pacific Bell’s 955 managers in Orange County have been trained to replace them, Bonniksen said, and 350 managers from the company’s Oakland office arrive today to pitch in. All are scheduled to work 12-hour shifts seven days a week.

The strike at Pacific Bell, which serves most of California and Orange County, and Bell Atlantic and NYNEX, two other so-called Baby Bell companies, came after negotiations failed to produce contracts that expired at 11:59 p.m. Saturday. Informal negotiations continued at the company’s Oakland office this morning, Bonniksen said.

Along picket lines outside some of the company’s 53 Orange County facilities this morning, sign-waving strikers reported peaceful protests. Few non-union workers crossed lines in what was called a test for the strength of the strike, according to the union.

“As long as it takes, we’re ready to stay out here,” said Mary Balis, an operator who gathered with fellow workers outside the company’s operator headquarters on Euclid Street in Garden Grove.

While striking workers in the group waved signs, passing motorists in cars and trucks honked horns in support.

“We don’t want to be out here; we’d just as soon be in there,” Balis said, turning toward the building. “We’d just like to get a piece of the pie we helped create.”

Striking workers from the union’s Local 9510 said Pacific Bell is a wealthy company, with more than $1 billion in profits last year. Charlotte Durbin, executive vice president of Local 9510, said this morning that worker productivity has gone up, yet the company’s “retrogressive” offer of a 10.93% pay raise over the next three years will not match cost-of-living increases, which were about 9.6% over the last year.

“That’s not a lot of real money,” Durbin said.

Pacific Bell today said the strike could have been avoided if the union had weighed more carefully what the company described as a “generous” contract offer that includes increased medical benefits.

Bonniksen said she could not reveal more about the contract dispute while negotiations continue.

Outside a Pacific Bell billing center on Garden Grove Boulevard in Garden Grove, a striker who identified himself only as Bill called fellow workers from a Pacific Bell public telephone.

“I was trying to get more people together,” Bill said. “It’s only fair that we get a good deal.”