Irate Police Picket but Also Resume Talks : Labor: Some officers threaten job actions over the city’s move to enforce provisions of its last contract offer.

The police union intensified its labor offensive on city management this week with picketing and talk of job actions, but also resumed the on-again, off-again contract negotiations with officials.

Furious that the city has started to enforce provisions of its last formal contract offer, union leaders said they would fight back on a variety of fronts.

“This is just the kickoff,” union President Mike Tracy said Tuesday night as he stood in the midst of off-duty police officers picketing the weekly City Council meeting with signs bearing such slogans as: “I didn’t know I worked in Russia.”

Union Vice President Terry Holland said it was “highly probable” that police officers would take some sort of job action, although city officials were unable to confirm reports that officers were cutting back on the number of traffic tickets they write.

“We’re not just going to sit here and agree to a city-imposed contract on us,” Holland said. “The membership is very angry.”

Although each side blamed the other for failure to end the nearly yearlong labor dispute, talks between city and union officials were revived Wednesday morning.

“It was very productive and we’re moving along,” city Human Resources Director William Storey said Wednesday, adding that both sides were working on their positions and would continue meeting.

Two weeks ago both sides were predicting a settlement was near. But the negotiating sessions collapsed when the city charged the union with changing its position on a key contract point. At the same time, the city won permission from an appeals court to begin implementing new work rules in the city’s last formal contract offer, made in October.

The city last fall declared an impasse in the negotiations and unilaterally adopted provisions of its last contract offer without the consent of the union. A Superior Court judge upheld the city’s right to impose the new personnel policies on the 620-member Long Beach Police Officers Assn. The union has appealed the ruling, but the 2nd District Court of Appeal refused to stop the city from enforcing the new provisions until the court rules in the case. Attorneys said they expect it will be months before a ruling.

Nonetheless, the department is not rushing to adopt the new personnel practices. “We’re going to move real slowly and try to work cooperatively,” Police Chief Lawrence Binkley said in an interview Tuesday night.

The union members do not appear in a cooperative mood. The police administration has been hoping for volunteers to help make the change from two-officer cars to one-officer cars at night, and to switch from four-day work weeks to five-day work weeks in return for more pay. But Binkley said Tuesday night that only three officers had volunteered to staff one-officer cars, and they had subsequently withdrawn their offers. Binkley said no officers have been assigned to the one-officer cars or the five-day weeks, both of which are major points of contention in the labor fight.

The department’s administration has ordered Tracy, the union president, back to regular police duties. Under the old contract, the union president was kept on the department payroll but allowed to work full time on union business. The new work rules abolish that provision and Tracy reported to the chief’s office Monday morning, a trim mustache and virtual crew cut replacing the long-hair look he has favored.

Union officials emerged from a meeting early this week with plans, as Holland put it, to “stir up some public support.” They said they would picket City Council meetings and perhaps the homes of council members and city management. Union members intend to walk the First and Fifth City Council districts this weekend to urge residents to vote against the council incumbents, who are running for reelection this spring.

The union is also endorsing challengers to Evan Anderson Braude, the First District incumbent, and Les Robbins, the Fifth District incumbent, and is asking other unions to withhold financial support from incumbents up for reelection.