Teachers, Service Unions Plan Marches

Several labor groups are seeking to use the media spotlight brought to Los Angeles by the Democratic National Convention this week to shed light on their own contentious contract disputes.

The union representing 40,000 Los Angeles County workers promises a peaceful march and rally at Staples Center today before members gather at a nearby union hall to take a strike vote.

Not far away, the union representing 41,000 teachers at the Los Angeles Unified School District plans a march today to the district offices to press for higher salaries.

And the marching teachers plan to join demonstrating hotel workers who have been in a long, bitter fight over conditions at the nonunion New Otani Hotel downtown.

“There’s a reason we’re doing this at the DNC,” said Bart Diener, assistant general manager of the Service Employees International Union, Local 660. “We think the issues are the ones the Democrats should be talking about.”

United Teachers-Los Angeles spokesman Steve Blazak said the convention gives teachers the opportunity to put local issues on a national stage.

“We want to focus national attention on public education,” he said. “It’s a big issue in California.”

Last week, labor leaders signed an accord, promising no strikes or pickets during the convention week by workers at Staples and at the hotels where President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore will stay.

But the agreement does not prevent other union groups from holding demonstrations near Staples or elsewhere downtown to highlight their contract disputes.

“We will be carrying Gore signs,” said service employees union spokesman Mark Tarnawsky. “We are not protesting Gore.”

About 3,000 county workers are expected to hold a rally at 3:30 p.m. near Staples Center, where the Rev. Jesse Jackson and Andy Stern, president of the service employees union, are slated to speak.

Union members are then expected to adjourn to a nearby auditorium to vote whether to strike after union contracts expire Sept. 30.

County officials have offered Local 660’s members a 9% raise over three years, similar to pay increases accepted by most county unions. But union officials say that given the local economic boom of the last few years their members deserve more--especially because they agreed to pay cuts during the lean years of the early 1990s.

“Now is the time for our folks to make real gains,” said Diener.

Negotiations are continuing, but county officials say they are standing firm.

“We will continue to bargain with them as we normally do, but the board [of supervisors] is firm on 9% over three years,” said Donna Singh, the county’s acting chief of employee relations.

Union leaders say that many of their members--who range from health workers who operate machinery in county hospitals to child support workers--make less than $30,000 annually.

Meanwhile, about 3,000 teachers are expected to march to the New Otani Hotel in downtown Los Angeles to join hotel workers to protest the treatment of workers at the hotel, which has been the site of ongoing union protests for years.

The teachers then will march to the Los Angeles Unified School District headquarters on North Grand Avenue for a rally at 4:30 p.m.

The district is offering teachers a 10% raise, district officials said. The teachers’ union is asking for a 21% increase next year.

The teachers’ contract expired June 30, 1999.

Teachers’ union spokesman Blazak said the group normally would have nearly 6,000 marchers, but he expects that many will stay away for fear of violence linked to the volatile atmosphere surrounding the convention.

Teachers’ union leaders also promise a peaceful march.