DWP Layoffs and Union Ties to Mayor
Re “Riordan’s Ties With Labor Warming After Early Freeze,” Nov. 5, and “DWP Plan Lists 2,000 Layoffs, No Rate Hikes,” Oct. 29:
Mayor Richard Riordan’s and the City Council’s close ties with the labor unions are clearly apparent in the DWP’s layoff plans. Riordan’s new general manager at the DWP, David Freeman, is laying off 2,000 engineering and white-collar workers at the DWP, but he has not yet identified even one position for layoff from the 6,000-member work force represented by the powerful International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The bloated white-collar bureaucracy at DWP needed to be reduced, but the same level of overstaffing exists in the DWP’s 6,000 electrical workers.
From 1987 until 1995, when I was in charge of DWP water system operations, we reduced the work force from 1,000 to 750 by attrition without a single layoff. The real accomplishment we made, however, was the improvement in efficiency. Costs of construction work we performed were cut in half.
The larger problem of dealing with the gross inefficiencies in the DWP’s and the rest of the city’s blue-collar work force will not be tackled as long as the powerful labor unions control the City Council and the mayor.
LARRY McREYNOLDS
La Crescenta
*
The 2,000 layoffs proposed at the DWP include numerous positions critical to ongoing operations and capital improvements. As details emerge, it is apparent that the new general manager shoots from the hip with little analysis of the real staffing needs required to maintain system reliability and public safety. Contrary to reports, substantial cuts are also proposed in the water services--unrelated to the deregulation of the electrical utilities industry.
The layoffs may disrupt the entire city government as DWP employees exercise displacement rights in other departments starting a cascade of bumping under civil service Rule 8. Some city employees are sincerely trying to make our cumbersome bureaucracy more responsive to the demands of the public through labor-management cooperation. The bloodletting at DWP is unlikely to promote an atmosphere of trust and goodwill conducive to this effort.
If the DWP is in fact overstaffed, early retirements and other voluntary attrition incentives should be utilized before resorting to the ax.
DOUG McPHERSON
San Clemente
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
