68 Drywall Workers Seized as Protest Blocks Freeway : Labor: Employees seeking higher pay scuffle with police. Some complain of excessive use of force.

Sixty-eight drywall construction workers, demanding union representation and higher wages, were arrested in Hollywood Thursday after scuffling with police officers during a demonstration that spilled over onto the Hollywood Freeway, temporarily stalling traffic, authorities said.

The confrontation between the demonstrators and police erupted when Los Angeles police and California Highway Patrol officers responded to calls that more than 100 people were throwing rocks and bottles at several men employed at a construction site in the 5200 block of Carlton Way, police said.

“One of the demonstrators assaulted a police officer, then several more did it and then the demonstrators went into a riot mode, down onto the freeway,” said LAPD Sgt. Trevor Asfall.

A witness, Paulette Lambert, said she was driving south on the freeway when the traffic suddenly came to a halt beneath the Hollywood Boulevard overpass.

“First I thought it was a traffic accident, but the next thing I knew, there were men all around me yelling and waving signs that said, ‘We want work, not food stamps,’ ” Lambert said. “They were having a demonstration, right there on the freeway. One of them pounded on the hood of my car to make noise.”

Asfall said the 60 to 70 LAPD and CHP officers who ultimately responded rounded up the demonstrators and removed them from the freeway. Traffic began moving normally again within a few minutes, Lambert said.

One of the suspects required medical treatment, but none of the officers were injured, Asfall said.

Miguel Caballero, legal director for the California Immigrant Workers Assn., said some of the demonstrators told him later that they had run down onto the freeway in an effort to get away from police.

“They said they thought the force used by the police was excessive,” Caballero said.

Several of the demonstrators who were not arrested gathered outside the LAPD’s Hollywood Division station later Thursday to protest the way police responded to the incident.

Most of the arrested men were booked on suspicion of illegal assembly and suspicion of assaulting police officers.

Thursday’s incident was the second clash this month in Southern California between drywall workers and law enforcement officers.

On July 2, 153 drywall workers were arrested by Orange County sheriff’s deputies at a construction site in Mission Viejo. Authorities said the men had trespassed and forced six non-striking workers to leave the site.

Charges against 68 of those arrested on July 2 subsequently were dropped. On Monday, another 48 pleaded guilty to charges of disturbing the peace at a labor demonstration, and 11 pleaded guilty to other charges, including battery and assault. Charges against the others are pending.

Cathy Loya, an attorney representing some of those arrested in Orange County, said Thursday that although none of the same individuals were believed involved in both demonstrations, “they’re from the same movement.”

Thursday’s demonstration came in the eighth week of a strike by about 1,000 non-union drywall workers--most of them Latino immigrants--in Orange, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties.

Complaining that their pay averages as little as $300 a week and that they haven’t had a raise in 10 years, the drywall workers are asking for better wages and for contractors to negotiate union contracts with them.

Many of those arrested in the demonstrations have been subjected to screening by immigration authorities. Of those taken into custody in Orange County, 25 have agreed to accept deportation to Mexico, and another 24 are being held pending formal deportation hearings, authorities said.