Neither Side Budges in DWP Strike; New Legal Actions Likely

With neither side in the Department of Water and Power strike making new contract offers, the unions and department officials Monday appeared headed toward an escalating legal confrontation.

As the strike approached a record length, attention was focused on how many more workers would accede to DWP pleas and a Superior Court judge’s order to return to work.

At a Labor Day picnic and rally in Griffith Park attended by several hundred of the 9,000 strikers of two unions--the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18 and the Engineers and Architects Assn.--the strike leader of the electrical workers said today would be “a day of reckoning.”

“The DWP management thinks everyone’s going back to work, but we’re prepared to continue the strike,” said Brian D’Arcy, the union’s business manager. He declared that he is ready to go to jail rather than direct his members to observe last week’s order by Superior Court Judge Robert O’Brien to go back to work.

The DWP management has vowed to seek enforcement of O’Brien’s temporary restraining order against the electrical workers, possibly through a contempt citation today against D’Arcy. D’Arcy, meanwhile, announced that union lawyers will go to the state Court of Appeal today to try to overturn the judge’s back-to-work order.

Today will be the seventh day of the strike, equaling the duration of the longest DWP work stoppage, a 1980 walkout. More than 1,000 union members crossed picket lines on Friday, the last regular workday.

A seasoned Los Angeles County labor leader, who asked not to be identified, said Monday: “It all comes down now to whether there will be sizable new defections. . . . I’d bet there will not be. . . . Historically, the DWP workers have been able to get what they demand, and I think the unions will continue to hold out.”

Several picket signs carried by strikers at the Griffith Park rally carried names of so-called scabs, DWP workers who have crossed the picket lines.

The unions have been asking for a 3.25% salary increase for both last year and this year. Last week, the Los Angeles City Council offered 9% over the next four years, with nothing for last year.

Two councilmen emphasized Monday that the council, expected to meet in executive session on the matter today, has made its best offer.

“I feel very strongly we’ve made a very generous offer,” Councilman Zev Yaroslavsky said. “Nine percent is very solid. At a time when public employees are threatened with pay freezes, pay cuts and layoffs, to turn down a 9% pay increase over four years is either an act of great courage or foolhardiness. Our offer is not going to be improved.”

Councilman Marvin Braude said he believes that the 9% offer “goes beyond what should be granted.”

“One thing I’m certain of, and that is the people of the city cannot tolerate being blackmailed by the water and power employees, and we must do everything necessary to maintain service,” Braude said. “And I think that the city will be adamant at seeking what protection we can obtain from the courts to protect health and safety and the economic welfare of the city.”

There have been comparatively few water or power outages during the strike. Those that have occurred have been repaired fairly quickly by DWP supervisors.

But DWP officials acknowledged Sunday that many customers needing electrical and water service hookups have faced long delays.

D’Arcy said DWP supervisors have been calling striking employees at home to warn them that if they stay out more than seven days they are subject to termination under civil service laws for “abandoning” their duties.

But he called this a threat without substance, adding that such terminations require hearings “and there’s no way the DWP wants to go through 8,000 hearings.”

Michael T. Moore, chief spokesman for the DWP in the strike, said “some supervisors may have said that to their employees.” But he too referred to a need for hearings, adding: “Typically, these things are dealt with in an amnesty provision before a strike is settled.”

In his remarks at the rally, D’Arcy said lawyers had told him that O’Brien’s back-to-work order contradicts a 5-year-old Supreme Court decision and he is convinced that it will not stand.

But, he added, members of the International Longshoreman’s union had told him that if he is jailed for contempt of court by O’Brien, they will close the Port of Los Angeles in retaliation. The Longshoreman’s office in Wilmington was closed Monday and no official could be reached for comment.

A fine by the judge would be tied up in court challenges for up to three years, D’Arcy said. At the same time, he said, he does not want to make the judge angry at him.

Union members repeatedly cheered D’Arcy’s remarks and chanted, “No way, no way,” when he asked if they were prepared to accede to the court order.

Meanwhile, Bob Duncan, executive director of the Engineers and Architects Assn., the other striking union, criticized City Council members for not being more open to a give and take in the negotiating process.

Duncan said he believes that 10 days would be about the maximum duration of the strike before “things get pretty ugly.” His assistant, Dick Marcoullier, appealed for a new offer. “Once they come through with one, we should be able to call this thing quits,” he said.