Firing by Jewish Group Protested : Labor: Local 800 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees is charging its president was dismissed in an attempt to disrupt the union.

A union representing 750 community workers ranging from janitors to rabbis at a Jewish organization said its president was fired in an apparent attempt to disrupt the labor organization on the eve of talks for a new contract.

Beryl Stoker, who lost her job as an accountant March 1, said the union’s effort to win Martin Luther King Day as a paid holiday may have been another reason behind her dismissal.

Both charges were denied by officials of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, a fund-raising and social service organization representing most of the Jewish groups in the Los Angeles area.

Mark Friedman, director of finance and administration for the federation, said he could not provide details but said that Stoker’s dismissal had nothing to do with her activities as president of Local 800 of the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees.

In a statement to be published in Jewish newspapers this weekend, however, the 750-member union said Stoker’s work record was unblemished, and that management has refused to reveal its case against her.

“Perhaps this is the first step on the part of the JFC to attempt to break our union,” reads the ad, which was placed by the union’s executive board.

“With all of the pressing humanitarian needs in Israel, Los Angeles and around the world supported by JFC and UJF (United Jewish Fund, the federation’s fund-raising arm), and with our increasingly limited resources, is this any time to demoralize and alienate the employees helping raise funds or provide services?” it asks.

The union’s contract with the federation expires in August. It covers employees of the federation itself and six affiliated social service agencies.

Stoker, an 11-year employee of the federation and president of the union for five years, had been on a disability leave since Nov. 28. She was fired March 1. She said the reason given her for her dismissal was “poor work performance.”

Both Friedman and Stoker said relations between union and management had been proper in the past, based on, in Friedman’s words, “the foundation of mutual trust that comes of being together for a long time.”

But Stoker said management was now “stonewalling” on disagreements that would have been settled easily in the past.

Friedman said: “There are clearly forces at work that cause you to look at the last few years and say, ‘Hmm, I wonder what the next four are likely to be?’ ”

Stoker traced the cooling in relations to the dispute over Martin Luther King Day, which the union failed to win as a paid holiday during negotiations in 1988, but which is now recognized.

Federation employees enjoy as many as 19 paid holidays a year, depending on whether Jewish holidays fall during the work week, but Stoker said black employees and other labor groups had been pushing for observance of King Day.

She renewed the effort by writing letters asking public officials and African-American organizations for support.

As a result, several outside groups asked the federation to reconsider, including the Rev. James Lawson, president of the Los Angeles chapter of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference, who threatened to show up at the Jewish Federation’s Wilshire Boulevard headquarters with picket signs.

“Our position was that the Jewish Federation, above all the other organizations in the community, ought to be observing Martin Luther King Day. As a community they were far more akin to the meanings of that than any other community outside the African-American community,” Lawson said.

Ron Rieder, the federation’s director of public affairs, said the decision to close on Martin Luther King Day was taken not in response to threats of picketing but as “an integral part of the L.A. community.”