Drywallers Face Off Against Police : Strike: 150 workers confront 40 officers for three hours at Anaheim job site. Many dared officials to arrest them.

About 150 striking drywall workers faced off against about 40 police officers in riot gear for more than three hours Wednesday at a job site in Anaheim. Many of the workers dared police to arrest them for blocking an entrance to the construction site.

“It got pretty tense for a while,” said Anaheim Police Captain Roger Baker, describing the confrontation between the police officers and an angry group of striking drywall workers who taunted the officers in Spanish.

The workers, who challenged police to arrest them, had blocked the progress of a bus loaded with about 45 non-striking drywall workers who were trying to go to a construction site at the Orange Pointe development, at Velare Street and Orange Avenue.

Police persuaded the angry drywall workers to let the bus drive through the entrance to the development, and then stationed themselves across the street from the site to “make sure nobody gets hurt,” said Lt. Steve Sain.

The only arrest was of a man taken into custody for allegedly waving a gun at the protesters from inside the construction site. The man’s identity was not immediately known.

It was the third day that striking drywall workers have converged on Orange Pointe, a small development of about 15 homes, to halt the bus that daily brings non-striking workers from San Bernardino.

Jim Bradbury, construction superintendent for Grimmway Development Co. in Anaheim, said he did not know where the busload of workers came from. Bradbury said that Grimmway had contracted with Champion Drywall, and Champion was responsible for recruiting workers and getting them to the site.

“We are absorbing the cost of hanging drywall through a contractor. I don’t know where they came from,” Bradbury said.

To help defuse a tense situation, police asked Bradbury to allow two representatives of the protesters to speak to Champion’s workers. Bradbury agreed to ask Champion’s drywall workers if any of them wanted to talk with the protesters, and only a handful accepted the offer.

With perspiration beading on his forehead from 90-degree temperatures, Bradbury said the uncomfortable weather was making things even worse. Asked about the prospects for even more serious problems, Bradbury looked at the strikers, shrugged his shoulders, and said: “It’s really one day at a time. I just show up in the morning and see if they’re here.”

About 4,000 construction workers who install drywall in new homes in Los Angeles, Orange, Ventura, San Bernardino, Riverside and San Diego counties walked off the job more than two months ago to demand higher wages and union representation. Their public protest demonstrations led to the mass arrest of 150 strikers in Orange County last month, but charges against most of the men were dropped after they were held in jail for several days.

Wednesday’s protest at a small job site in Anaheim was unlike earlier demonstrations, which had been staged at large developments in South County. Strike organizers declined to say whether the protest marked a change in their strategy, however.

Many nearby residents, some of whom said they were awakened by the commotion at dawn, said they became concerned about their safety and that of their family members.

“This is a mess,” said Carla Kolb, who said she became concerned when the predominantly Latino strikers began yelling pro-union slogans in Spanish, and then she saw police assemble in riot gear with gas masks. “You don’t know what’s going to happen.”

Police said they were trying to keep a low profile. But Sain said they were concerned because the site is in an older residential area with nearby schools.

One of the strike organizers said the men were ready and willing to be arrested. Preparing for that eventuality, they began giving their wallets, watches and other valuables to one organizer, when they saw police show up in strength.

Jose Jimenez, one of the two representatives allowed to speak with the non-striking workers, said that they were only earning 7 cents a foot for hanging drywall, only a fraction above the rate of pay that prompted several thousand workers to go out on strike.

“When I heard that they were only making 7 cents a foot, I argued to them, ‘Look at all the trouble going on,’ and I asked them, ‘Is it worth it?’ ” Jimenez said.

Some men did agree to stop work and join the protesters, who throughout the morning beckoned to them, occasionally in very strong terms, to join the strike.

The protesters gave no indication whether they would return today.

Baker praised Bradbury for having a cooperative attitude and helping to defuse the situation. He also said police were ready to place all the men under arrest, if necessary, on charges of trespassing and failure to disperse.

Baker said he had asked his officers to describe the booking process to the striking workers, a diversion that he believed helped ease the tense situation.

“These people have an absolute right to picket, and the construction people have a right to build. It’s just that police always get caught in the middle of this,” Baker said.

“In Anaheim, we’ve had protesters before, especially over at the Convention Center. And we’re pleased to say, we’ve never had any violence. Today we gave them the order that if they didn’t disperse and let the bus through, they would be arrested, and they moved.”