Rift Over Leadership Paralyzes County Employees’ Union : Labor: Heated dispute over who will head chapter prevents it from taking action during budget talks that affect its 40,000 members.

Two factions are fighting for control of the union that represents 40,000 Los Angeles County employees, a struggle that has paralyzed the organization during budget deliberations that will determine the fate of all county programs.

At issue is who should assume the duties of general manager of Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union, one of Southern California’s largest labor unions.

A large segment of the union’s rank-and-file membership opposes the board of directors’ recent decision to hire longtime union activist Ron Azlin.

Azlin replaced Gilbert Cedillo, an acting general manager who led the local during its “rolling thunder” walkouts earlier this year, a successful campaign against proposed cutbacks in workers’ health benefits.

Cedillo’s supporters have formed the Committee for a Democratic Union and are threatening legal action against the board.

The union’s international headquarters has intervened, sending a representative who is conducting hearings that will decide who should control Local 660. The hearings are to continue Monday.

At stake is the direction of a union local that has become one of the most active and militant in Los Angeles. The two factions have faced off in several raucous board meetings, with police summoned to restore order at one especially rowdy gathering.

“We’re a divided union,” said Steve Weingarten, a spokesman for the local. “Most union business is pretty much operating on automatic pilot right now.”

Even county officials at the chief administrative office have expressed confusion about who is at the helm of Local 660, which represents social workers, clerical staff, registered nurses and many other county employees.

“You can’t tell the players over there without a score card,” said Beverly Campbell, assistant administrative officer for labor relations. “Fred Williams was the GM for two weeks. Then last week it was Annelle Grajeda and before that it was Gil Cedillo. And this week it’s Azlin.”

The confusion mounted Tuesday, when Alejandro Stephens, the president of the union and a Cedillo supporter, took the unusual step of notifying county officials in writing that he did not recognize Azlin as the union’s general manager.

The letter came in the midst of hearings by the Board of Supervisors on how to allocate the county’s $13-billion budget, decisions that will affect many union members.

“As far as I’m concerned, I recognized Gil Cedillo as general manager,” Stephens said.

Cedillo, 38, and other union activists say they are fighting to keep the local democratic and militant. They see Azlin, 57, as a more cautious leader. Azlin’s supporters, meanwhile, say he is more qualified for the job.

Both sides agree that the dispute began in March, when 11 of 21 members of the board voted to install Azlin as general manager. Angered with that decision, a group of rank-and-file members responded with a petition drive supporting Cedillo. On May 20, they held a membership meeting where Cedillo was elected to head the local by a vote of 3,643 to 952.

Azlin and the majority of the board have said the election was invalid because the board has the power to hire its staff. Cedillo and his supporters maintain that the local’s bylaws enable the membership to overrule the board.

“In essence, we have a constitutional crisis in the union,” said Cedillo, who has been demoted to a union field representative. The board, he charged, “has ignored the democratic process. There’s no way for the members to have a meaningful say in the affairs of the union.”

But Marietta Welch, a member of the board who is opposed to Cedillo, said Azlin was chosen for the job because he scored higher in interviews and tests conducted as part of a nationwide search for a general manager.

Azlin is a former telephone company worker and administrator for the Communication Workers of America.

“You can choose democracy, or you can choose anarchy and say to hell with the rules,” Azlin said, referring to his opponents. “The rules clearly give the board of directors the right to hire a general manager.”

Cedillo charged that the board is controlled by an elite clique of old-guard union bureaucrats seeking to maintain a tight grip on the local.

“We are trying democratize the union in a meaningful way,” he said.