UNION TO START TWO-DAY WALKOUT.

Byline: RICK ORLOV Staff Writer

A major Los Angeles city union is scheduled to begin a two-day walkout today as part of a lengthy contract dispute, a move union leaders say will affect all city operations and disrupt public services.

But leaders of the 7,400-member Engineers and Architects Association said their work stoppage would not endanger public safety, even though a Superior Court judge issued a temporary restraining order blocking workers in 208 job categories from striking.

``It seems to me that these are essential services to maintain public health and safety,'' Judge Dzintra Janavs ruled after an extended court hearing Monday. ``If there is a chance that even one person gets sick from raw sewage in the bay, we have to take that into consideration.''

Under her ruling, the workers in key jobs at the Department of Airports, Sanitation Bureau and Information Technology Agency are expressly forbidden from taking part in the walkouts planned for today and Wednesday.

Janavs said she wanted to tread carefully on the rights of workers to strike and was limiting the ruling to only those positions the city called essential to maintain public health and safety at Los Angeles International Airport, Ontario Airport, Van Nuys Airport, police and fire dispatch operations and the sanitation bureau.

Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa issued a statement saying he was pleased with the judge's ruling and that it sent a message to the workers.

``While we will always respect the right of workers to organize, we cannot tolerate any effort to compromise the safety of the people of Los Angeles,'' Villaraigosa said.

``We should be clear: The TRO affects just a tiny fraction of EAA's members. These are employees whose jobs are critical to the city's health and safety.''

The mayor said he anticipates a peaceful strike, but that any threats to public safety will be dealt with swiftly.

Neither the union nor the city was able to predict Monday how the job action would affect public services today. EAA members work in each of the city's 54 departments and bureaus ranging from crime lab technicians, water sanitation workers and runway supervisors at Los Angeles International Airport.

``We have our managers in place and ready to serve the public and we will do the best we can,'' City Administrative Officer Bill Fujioka said, adding that the city is setting up a special situation room to respond to problems.

``My suspicion is there will be a few hundred people walking the picket lines and a lot of people just staying home because they are intimidated or don't want to get in the middle of this.''

It is the first walkout by a city union since 1993, when Department of Water and Power workers staged a nine-day strike.

Fujioka said there is no procedure for workers calling in sick on a strike day or calling in to say they are on strike.

``If they don't show up for work, we mark them as being on an unauthorized absence and they won't be paid,'' Fujioka said. ``If they have a doctor's excuse, we will take those up on a case-by-case basis.''

Janavs issued her ruling at 2:45 p.m., after her second hearing on the matter because the City Attorney's Office had failed to provide her with declarations on the importance of the jobs.

The EAA picked up some support from other unions when the Teamsters announced it will respect the union's picket lines.

Villaraigosa said he plans to cross the picket lines, the first time he has done so in his years as a union organizer and a politician, arguing that the city made a fair offer to the unions.

City Attorney Rocky Delgadillo will not cross the picket lines during the strike. The 15 members of the City Council are on vacation and not scheduled to be at City Hall. Controller Laura Chick said she will be crossing the picket lines.

EAA chief Bob Aquino said he is disappointed, in particular, with the mayor.

``We were there to help him when he announced he was running for mayor and he has turned his back on us,'' Aquino said. ``He's a union man and he's about to become a scab. That's a label not easily forgotten.''

Aquino said the dispute centers on pay. The city had offered the EAA a four-year contract that had no raise the first year and raises totaling 6.25 percent over the next three years.

Villaraigosa and Fujioka say the EAA broke off talks two years ago and rejected the same contract accepted by more than 17,000 other city workers. A fact-finder report backed the city's position on the key issue of money.

rick.orlov(at)dailynews.com

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