Police Union Plans a ‘Blue Flu’ Job Action : Labor: Officers will be asked to call in sick next week to put pressure on city officials who are balking at granting a raise.

Leaders of the city’s police union intend to ask officers to call in sick next week--a labor action known as a “blue flu”--in order to put pressure on city officials who are balking at police officers’ demand for a raise.

Police Protective League delegates met in an emergency session Thursday night to discuss escalating their job action against the city. Officers who attended say that about three-quarters of the delegates supported the decision to call the blue flu.

“We’re sick of waiting around,” said one officer who was present at the meeting. “The city is ignoring us.”

By law, police officers cannot strike, but many have grown increasingly frustrated by the city’s unwillingness to grant them a raise, particularly in light of Mayor Richard Riordan’s plans for spending hundreds of millions of dollars to expand the ranks of the Los Angeles Police Department. If it goes as scheduled, the action would be the first time in decades that Los Angeles police officers have failed to report to work as a contract negotiating tactic.

“I sent out a survey to our membership, and the survey said that the vast majority of our members support this action,” said David Zeigler, president of the Police Protective League. “Their level of frustration has reached the point where they feel we need to do something to put pressure on the city. This is what they want to do.”

League officials have scheduled a Monday morning press conference to announce their plan. They have not said when the blue flu would commence or how long they would continue to ask officers to call in sick.

But officers who attended the Thursday meeting said the job action would go into effect early next week. It represents the most aggressive stance that the league has taken in its escalating battle with the city to secure a pay raise for roughly 7,500 rank-and-file officers.

The prospect of the blue flu prompted immediate concern Friday morning at City Hall when officials began hearing rumors of the job action.

“My view is that it will not serve their purposes,” said Councilman Marvin Braude, who chairs the council’s Public Safety Committee. “I consider it irresponsible. To damage the city is to damage all of us.”

Police commanders in several divisions also got wind of the planned job action late Friday. One department official said commanders were inquiring whether reserve officers would be willing to fill in for any “sick” officers.

Braude and other city officials, including Police Chief Willie L. Williams, have expressed sympathy for officers, who have gone without a raise for more than two years. But Braude said the city is so short of funds that it cannot afford to give officers a pay hike.

“I do not think that the city is in a position to give anybody a raise,” Braude said.

League officials, however, say police officers are entitled to at least the 9% raise over three years that the city gave to Department of Water and Power employees.

The league, which represents officers up to the rank of lieutenant, last month asked them to carry out their duties with meticulous attention to detail, a job action that they say has slowed some police operations.

That tactic, however, has drawn little public attention and has put little pressure on the city. The blue flu, by contrast, is a more visible and confrontational tactic that could result in increased overtime spending by the Police Department as it tries to cover for missing officers.

It also is a risky venture for the police union, which has tried to develop a strategy that will put pressure on the city without alienating the public.

Under the strategy outlined by the league leadership, officers will call in sick on alternating shifts. For instance, the day shift at a police station would be asked to report as usual, but then officers on the night shift would be asked to stay home. The theory, according to officers who attended the league delegates’ meeting, is that the department can hold over one shift to cover absences on the succeeding shift.

That would keep the strike from affecting public safety, league officials believe, while forcing city officials to dip into their overtime budget.