Striking Clerks Vow Further Job Actions

The scheduled resumption of salary talks between striking court clerks and negotiators for the Superior Court never materialized Thursday, leading angry union leaders to vow that the walkout will continue with expanded support from other branches of organized labor.

Labor officials said the support would include, at least, picketing by other union members countywide and could grow to include rolling sickouts by other bargaining groups without new contracts.

“I am very upset that in this instance, when [workers] have been out a total of seven days, the court refuses to come to the table,” the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees state Director Oran McMichael said at a county courthouse news conference.

The ire of union officials was aroused by the absence of court negotiators at a planned 2 p.m. meeting aimed at determining whether a compromise can be reached on a new three-year contract for the 600 clerks. The clerks have been offered a 12% pay package, but are holding out for 16% on the grounds that they have not had a raise in six years.

“They said the meeting was off,” clerks’ union President Karlene George told reporters at the 3:30 news conference.

“I’m furious,” George said. “It’s bad faith bargaining as far as I’m concerned.”

But Superior Court spokeswoman Jerianne Hayslett said court officials decided not to show up for talks only after learning the scope of the meeting had changed--from noneconomic issues to a new union counteroffer that was even higher than 16%.

“So they were notified that the meeting was canceled and the reasons why,” Hayslett said.

Union leaders said they were particularly miffed that the talks were canceled when, by their estimates, the difference between what clerks want and what the courts have offered would only cost the courts $500,000 a year out of an annual budget of $300 million.

“That [difference] is peanuts to them,” George said.

Already, George added, union officials estimate that the backlog of courthouse work caused by the strike will cost the court system about $2 million in overtime. County officials also would be part of a final contract settlement.

The Superior Court’s Hayslett said officials could not calculate how much it would cost to meet the union’s demands because it is unclear how the multiyear pay package would be structured.

And although no cost estimate on the strike was immediately available, Hayslett said, court officials dispute the $2-million figure quoted by the union. “We’re doubtful it would be anywhere near that,” Hayslett said.

Meantime, as the walkout dragged on, there were new details about the toll of the strike on the nation’s busiest judicial system.

In Pomona, a defense attorney confirmed Thursday that a man on probation was improperly jailed for four days because no one notified authorities that an arrest warrant had been withdrawn.

Rodrico Garcia Prieto, 24, was ordered arrested one day before the clerks’ strike began Nov. 4 after he mistakenly failed to show up in court as part of a monitoring program for his already completed drug rehabilitation, said Deputy Public Defender Michael R. Coughlin.

But when he arrived the next day, the judge recalled the bench warrant and continued Prieto’s probation.

But with no clerk in the courtroom, the judge’s order was never entered in a computer system and Prieto, when notified that an arrest warrant was still in effect, went to West Covina police, who, also unaware of the judge’s action, took him into custody.

Prieto, Coughlin said, remained in custody until Monday when the matter was again brought before the judge.

“People need to know this strike is having an effect on court procedures and people’s lives,” Coughlin said.

Officials at the courts reported Thursday that the number of striking clerks had dipped Thursday to about 30% of the Municipal Court clerks and 79% of the Superior Court clerks.

Likewise, Hayslett said that a number of courthouses--from Santa Monica to Long Beach--had responded positively to a request for Municipal Court clerks to assist in Superior Court cases.

But union officials maintain that the number of striking workers remains high--at least 90% of the Superior Court clerks and more than 60% of Municipal Court workers.

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Times staff writer Rich Connell contributed to this story.