A SPECIAL REPORT: LABOR

ON THE LINES: It’s Labor Day and while things may seem mighty quiet in Orange County--especially compared to Los Angeles, where hundreds of utility workers are on strike--that doesn’t mean the local unions aren’t busy. . . . Not only will some Orange County union members be traveling up to Los Angeles and to Long Beach to show support for labor problems there, but union utility workers are scheduled to picket the Southern California Gas Co. headquarters in Anaheim over a contract dispute. “They’re bound to be anywhere this weekend,” says Bill Fogarty, chair of the county’s Central Labor Council.

DISNEY UNIONS: The proposed Disney expansion may make Orange County the happiest place on earth for construction unions. With office and home building slowed dramatically, workers are anticipating both the Disney expansion and new highway work on toll roads and the El Toro Y. . . . “Large-scale, public-works projects in Southern California are still 100% union turf,” says Mike Potts of the Building and Construction Trades Council. “This is real live construction . . . not something you learn from Daddy in the back yard.”

TOP JOBS: More women seem to be moving into the top ranks at local labor unions. Ann Foster, above, recently became the first woman to be named president of the local Central Labor Council. And Angela Keefe, 30, was elected president of the hotel and restaurant unions last July. “I think here in Orange County, women come from the organizing side and have a more community-based perspective,” Keefe says.

UNSEEN DANGERS: Maybe what you don’t know can’t hurt you, but what you don’t see in the workplace could be damaging. At least Steven Klein thinks so. . . . The former stock options trader has formed “Safer Places,” a Laguna Niguel company that detects electromagnetic radiation rays in your office. Klein, 37, became anxious about them after his wife, who is a secretary, became pregnant. At times, he says, harmful radiation can even come from “computers, copy machines and fluorescent lights.”

WEATHER: Low clouds, then clearing with high near 82. (B8)