Engineers Union Stages Wage Protest

Tangling downtown traffic during the morning rush hour, more than 300 white-collar city workers picketed Tuesday outside the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power to demand the same pay raises given that agency’s workers.

Although the demonstration did not stop dozens of DWP employees from crossing the picket line and going to work, union head Robert Aquino said the picket is part of an escalating protest that may soon involve some of the 8,000 members of the Engineers and Architects Assn. walking off the job.

“We’re going to make sure the city understands these people aren’t going to go away,” Aquino said, standing on the corner of Temple and Hope streets.

“They are not going to be treated as second-class citizens this time.”

The union members chanted “equal pay for equal work” and repeatedly crossed the intersection at the light, but there were so many of them that traffic was often blocked for a minute or more after the light changed. In the end, the LAPD shut down portions of Temple and Hope to avoid the traffic tie-up.

An hour later, appearing on radio station KFWB-AM (980), Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa said the city cannot afford to give the engineers union members the same contract approved in September by the City Council for about 8,000 DWP workers.

The DWP contract provides a minimum raise of 3.25% each year for five years, but salaries can go up 6% each year if inflation goes that high.

The DWP contract was negotiated by the administration of former Mayor James K. Hahn, but Villaraigosa declined to demand renegotiations.

“I’m going to draw the line where I have responsibility for negotiating,” Villaraigosa said. “We’ve got to live within our means.”

Aquino’s union represents administrators, analysts, accountants, crime lab workers, engineers and architects.

Villaraigosa said he is willing to stand up to the EAA, one of the few city unions that backed him for mayor, and he urged them to accept a contract with no raise the first year and 6.5% spread out over three years.

“I think most of our employees think that this is a fair offer,” Villaraigosa said.