City Moves to Enforce Proposed Police Pact

Unable to forge a new labor contract with the Long Beach Police Officers Assn., Long Beach city officials said Wednesday that they have begun taking steps to enforce the provisions of their last contract offer in the 642-member Police Department.

A state appeals court this week refused the police union’s request for a stay that would have barred the city from implementing the contract offer while the union appeals a Superior Court decision. That ruling allowed the city to declare an impasse in police negotiations and adopt the work rules spelled out in its last offer without the consent of the union.

Under the new work rules, the union president loses paid release time from regular police duties, some nighttime police patrols will be changed from two-officer cars to one-officer cars, and some officers will be reassigned from four-day work weeks of 10-hour days to conventional five-day work weeks.