ANAHEIM : Police Unions Weigh ‘Blue Flu’ as Tactic

Leaders of two Orange County police unions at odds with their cities over pay raises said this week they may follow the lead of Los Angeles police officers and have members call in sick.

A “blue flu” work stoppage would be used only as a last resort, said the presidents of the Anaheim and Cypress police associations.

“We don’t want to do it, but we would if we had to,” said Bruce Bottolfson, president of the Anaheim Police Assn. His members voted 2 to 1 last week to authorize any job action “up to and including a strike,” a move that would violate state laws prohibiting police strikes.

About 60% of the Los Angeles Police Department morning shift called in sick Tuesday to protest not receiving a pay raise for two years. A judge later ordered them back to work.

In Anaheim, the union has been working without a contract since July, 1992. Members picketed two recent City Council meetings, passed a “no-confidence” measure against the mayor and are planning a demonstration near Disneyland next month.

Anaheim has offered a 6.5% pay increase over two years, but the union is asking for a 10% increase over the same period. The 353-member department has not had salaries raised since July, 1991.

“The blue flu is one of the weapons we could use to create an urgency on the City Council to get this thing settled, but when it comes down to it, the blue flu would be a last-ditch deal,” Bottolfson said. The problem, he said, is that the job action could backfire and turn the public against the police officers.

“A guy who needs assistance and doesn’t get the kind of assistance he would normally receive is going to be angry” at the union, Bottolfson said. “You wind up looking like chumps.”

Anaheim officials weren’t available for comment.

In Cypress, Matt Robinson, president of the Cypress Public Safety Employees Assn., said his group hasn’t ruled anything out as an option, including the “blue flu.”

Association members also picketed City Hall earlier this month, demanding an unspecified pay raise and the addition of eight more officers to the 53-member force. They have been without a contract for a month.

“I think we are getting enough community support that it is going to press the city to settle before anything like that could happen,” Robinson said.

Cypress officials said they are confident of settling the matter before any job action occurs. But they said contingency plans are in place if officers walked off their jobs for any length of time.

“I’m hopeful that we will be able to address the issues,” Cypress City Manager Darrell Essex said. “But we always have contingency plans for any number of things. But I don’t think things have gotten to that point yet.”

Essex said police officers could be the losers if they stage a job action.

“I don’t know what the community reaction would be, but I do know there are a lot of people out there without jobs who might tend to be upset,” Essex said.