SHUTDOWN AGREEMENTS PROMPT WORKER LAYOFFS.

Byline: Lisa Mascaro Staff Writer

SANTA CLARITA - Two weeks before Christmas, the president of a Valencia drum manufacturing company laid off 33 temporary workers after losing days of production during the energy crisis.

Remo Inc.'s president said he shut down the night shift because he needed to curtail operations according to an arrangement that gives lower rates in exchange for being called on to cut power when reserves fall low.

``I don't think anybody would have expected to have been shut down continuously day after day,'' said Remo President Brock Kaericher.

``I can tell you whatever we saved in four years, we lost in the days of production lost. It's no bargain.''

The firm is among a dozen in Santa Clarita that city officials said have been struggling with the shutdowns because of their voluntary agreements.

City officials, concerned about the local companies, are working to convince the Public Utilities Commission to allow businesses to opt out of the agreements.

``It's just really becoming a hardship,'' said Stacy Miller, intergovernmental relations officer for the city.

Miller said the city is calling on local elected officials and statewide organizations to urge the PUC to allow businesses to opt out under a deadline in March.

The city's concern, she said, is that businesses will find it too difficult to operate. ``We don't want to lose anybody,'' she said.

Under the agreements, commercial and industrial customers can sign up for lower power rates - 15 percent to 20 percent reductions - in exchange for curtailing operations during a Stage Two energy emergency.

An Edison spokesman said about 1,000 customers in the Southern California region are part of the voluntary program.

Spokesman Paul Klein said that while the companies were called on once or twice to fulfill the cutbacks in operations last year, this year they have been called on multiple times.

``These are extreme times,'' Klein said. ``It's not anything we, or anybody, anticipated.''

Kaericher said he hopes to bring the workers back on board in coming weeks and resume operations at the Commerce Center facility that makes more drumheads than anywhere in the world, and produces a full line of percussion gear.

He wants the company to opt out of the arrangement with Edison, but also is hoping for a solution that doesn't add to the power problems in the state.

``I think it's a problem for all of us, whether we're in business or sitting in our homes,'' he said. ``Hopefully, everyone can get through this thing.''