Anaheim : City Employees Break County Association Ties

Apparently disgruntled with the Orange County Employees Assn., an Anaheim group representing about 900 municipal employees--including clerical and maintenance workers--broke away this week from the county bargaining unit that has represented it in labor negotiations for more than 15 years.

As of Tuesday, Costa Mesa attorney James G. Harker became the Anaheim Municipal Employees Assn.’s new negotiating representative, association president Sharon Erickson said Thursday.

Erickson declined to discuss the reasons for the decision, but a letter dated Monday from the county association to employees and a response the same day from the Anaheim group hurl accusations in both directions.

The County Employees Assn. letter said “a small group of officers” from the Anaheim association “appears to be sabotaging efforts by OCEA to promote, protect and defend Anaheim employees. . . . AMEA officers have ceased to support OCEA efforts and are working to undermine support for OCEA among the membership. The destructive effort of such irresponsible actions at this critical time is impossible to exaggerate.”

The letter from the Anaheim association said the letter from the county association “was full of lies.”

“It seeks to undermine your elected representatives and prevent you from having any independence from OCEA,” the letter said.

The letter from the Anaheim group was given to more than 100 members attending a meeting Tuesday night at which the vote to abandon the Orange County Employees Assn. was taken, one employee said.

Anaheim employees’ sudden cancellation of their contract will mean the county bargaining unit will lose about $83,000 annually, Erickson said. Representatives of the county association could not be reached for comment Thursday evening.