County Beach Workers Join Rolling Walkouts
A rolling job action by Los Angeles County service workers hit the beaches Saturday as transit strike talks once again bogged down.
About 75 workers who groom county beaches with heavy equipment and clean shoreline restrooms took part in the one-day walkout, according to Mark Tarnawsky, communications director for Local 660 of the Service Employees International Union.
Wayne Schumaker of the county Department of Beaches and Harbors said the action had a minor effect. The department hired a private contractor to clean restrooms Friday night, and part-time workers emptied beach trash cans Saturday.
Negotiators in the ongoing Metropolitan Transportation Authority strike met Saturday but reported only frustration after two hours of bargaining.
“This is just another wasted day of opportunities,” said MTA spokesman Gary Wosk. “Unfortunately we’re a long ways away from settling the strike. . . . Our negotiators are quite disgusted.”
United Transportation Union President James Williams similarly remarked that “nothing was accomplished here today.”
The strike, which began Sept. 16 and has affected 450,000 commuters, was the first walkout in a pattern of labor unrest that is gripping the 4,083-square-mile county.
The rolling county job action, in which service employees walk out at targeted facilities one day at a time, will resume Tuesday at various medical facilities. There will be no walkout Monday, because it is Columbus Day, a county holiday.
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