DWP Union Dodges Order to End Strike : Labor: Limited progress is reported in negotiations on second day of walkout. Power problems are minimal.

A strike by about 10,000 Los Angeles Department of Water and Power employees continued into a second day Thursday as city officials--in a game of cat and mouse--sought to deliver a court order to reluctant union leaders requiring them to call off the walkout.

Negotiations between the DWP and the two unions representing workers started at 7 p.m. Wednesday and broke up at 7 a.m. Thursday with no settlement in the wage dispute.

The talks were scheduled to reconvene today at an undisclosed hotel--with the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 18, insisting and the DWP agreeing that no court papers be served at the negotiating table.

Although no major utility problems were reported, the city served the court order on more than 50 workers deemed essential to operations. But they were unsure how many of them would comply, and none of the union brass, holed up in their headquarters in Koreatown, were served with the order.

“We haven’t found them so far,” Michael Moore, the DWP’s public and governmental affairs director, said of the union leaders. “They are eluding us.”

Lawyers for the electrical workers union are scheduled to appear in Los Angeles Superior Court this morning to ask Judge Robert O’Brien to limit the scope of his ruling, which now applies to all 7,500 members of Local 18.

Although the DWP employees have a right to strike, the city argued that residents’ health and safety will be in jeopardy if the strike continues. The union says the DWP rejected its offer to have emergency crews of striking workers on standby to respond to critical situations.

The 2,500 members of the Engineers and Architects Assn., the other union involved in the dispute, are not restricted by the judge’s order and planned to remain off their jobs.

At picket lines across the area, most striking workers said they had not received official word about Wednesday’s ruling ordering them back to work and planned to continue their walkout until the city gives them an acceptable contract.

The union leadership also said it had not received the order.

“We don’t know anything about it,” said Brian D’Arcy, business manager for Local 18. “We haven’t been served with anything. The strike is on.”

D’Arcy appeared on cable television Thursday morning back to back with City Councilwoman Jackie Goldberg, but he quickly fled the studio after the appearance to avoid process servers.

“I’ve got to get out of here,” he said as a horde of reporters followed him out of the Century Cable studio in Santa Monica.

DWP officials said that if they had known of the appearance they would have had someone waiting outside.

If the leadership is served, it is legally required to announce the end of the strike to the news media and notify members by mail.

Temporary restraining orders are commonly sought by management in public employee disputes, but strikes do not always come to a halt when they are granted. In 1980, when Local 18 walked off the job at the DWP in a similar wage dispute, the union was fined $5,000 for not complying with the court order, officials said.

D’Arcy said limited progress had been made in the negotiations. DWP spokesman Michael Moore would only say that he was pleased that D’Arcy is encouraged. Neither side would comment on details of the talks.

The City Council on Tuesday decided behind closed doors to offer the union a 9% wage increase over four years, which employees deem too low, considering the higher raises received by workers at private utilities.

At the same time, other city employee unions expressed concern that DWP workers were offered a raise when they have been working for more than a year without one.

Participation in the strike, which began at 6 a.m. Wednesday, remained strong, although the DWP reported that 600 employees crossed picket lines. Still, about 85% of the DWP’s 11,000 employees stayed off the job.

Repair crews staffed by management and the relatively few employees who reported for work remained stretched, but problems were kept to a minimum. Power was restored to all of the 1,000 homes that lost it Wednesday in the San Fernando Valley and on the Westside. An additional 20 homes in the Hollywood Hills were without power Thursday because of a blown transformer.

The water system so far has not suffered any shortages, although DWP officials fear they could come if the strike lingers. A water main broke in the Cypress Park area about 11 a.m. Thursday, but was repaired by nightfall. Officials said residents may continue to notice the taste and odor of chlorine in tap water. More of the chemical has been added to the water as a precautionary measure, officials said.

Half a dozen customer service centers remained open across the city to handle incoming calls, but there were only a few operators working in the centers and officials urged customers to limit their calls to emergencies.