Union Warns L.A. Council of Walkout

Wearing black T-shirts that read “Will Strike if Provoked,” more than 100 members of the Engineers and Architects Assn. packed the Los Angeles City Council chambers Tuesday to warn they are willing to walk off the job unless they get the same lucrative raises won by Department of Water and Power workers.

But Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa reiterated his contention that the city cannot afford to offer a similar contract. “We have a $248-million deficit,” he said at Belmont High School, where he spoke at a rally encouraging students to stay in school.

“It would be irresponsible for me and the city to at this time provide a raise anywhere near what’s being asked for right now.”

Although Villaraigosa insisted that the 8,000 members of the association accept a contract with no raise in the first year followed by a 2% raise retroactive to July 1 of this year, he successfully requested in a closed-door meeting Tuesday that the maximum salary for his two top aides be raised 5.5%, from $174,369 to $184,099.

One of those aides, Marcus Allen, deputy chief of staff, will see his $170,000 pay rise 7.9% to $183,500, officials said.

Robert G. Aquino, executive director of the Engineers and Architects Assn., said he did not know the mayor’s rationale behind increasing the salary cap for his top aides but said, “It does raise my eyebrows.”

Villaraigosa also said Tuesday he was willing to meet with union leaders to discuss their differences, if it would help avert disruptive demonstrations, including one planned by the union for Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport.

“We’re always willing to sit down,” he said. “You have to. You can’t demonize them because they’re fighting for their wage.... I respect that and am certainly going do everything possible to resolve this in a way that is mutually beneficial.”

However, no meeting was scheduled as of Tuesday evening.

Villaraigosa, a former union organizer, has a reputation for his ability to finesse negotiations, even averting a major hotel workers’ strike before he was sworn in as mayor. But the union’s challenge is the first direct confrontation he has had with a city union since his election and since he decided not to stand in the way of the DWP contract, which was negotiated by the previous administration.

Villaraigosa supported the contract approved by the City Council in September. That deal gave most DWP workers salary increases of at least 17.9% over five years and up to 31%, depending on the level of inflation.

International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 18, which represents more than 8,000 DWP workers, and the Engineers and Architects Assn. were the only two major city employee unions to back Villaraigosa in this year’s mayoral election.

The City Council approved the DWP pact after members of the IBEW wearing T-shirts that also said “Will Strike if Provoked” packed the council’s City Hall chambers.

Adopting the same tactic, Aquino told the council Tuesday that his members voted Sunday to authorize a strike and agreed to give the city 72 hours to meet their demands or face demonstrations.

“Our members were starting to get the impression that the city didn’t reward faithful, diligent service, but rather only rewarded the ability to disrupt service to the citizens of this city,” Aquino said. “These people do not want to do that.”

The city contracts with Aquino’s union expired in July 2004; the city’s offer would be retroactive to that month.

Aquino said inflation was 3% last year so the proposed contract, with no pay raise for the first year, means workers would actually earn less.

The union represents a wide range of city employees, including administrators, accountants, engineers, architects, criminalists, auditors, law clerks, forensic print specialists, city planners and airport operations coordinators.

More than 120 of the job classifications already pay less than the identical classifications at the DWP, Aquino told the council as protesters took up a chant of “equal pay for equal work.”

After the council meeting, union officials called on members to attend a demonstration beginning at 4 p.m. Sunday at LAX that they predict will back up traffic just as people return from the Thanksgiving weekend.

City Council members who approved the DWP contract in September after a similar strike threat warned that the union members might hurt their cause if they snarl traffic at the already congested airport.

“They won’t win any friends and they will probably influence people against them,” Councilman Jack Weiss said.

Those who voted against the DWP contract also voiced concern about the possible disruption at LAX, but they said the union’s hard-line position is a direct result of the council’s decision to approve it.

“I thought it was a mistake. That’s why I voted against it,” Councilman Bernard C. Parks said. “I thought it was something that would put us in the position that is exactly where we are today.”

Agreed Councilman Dennis Zine, “This is the repercussion of that vote. When I voted against the water and power contract, I voted with the knowledge and understanding that other unions would come and ask for the same. I didn’t feel it was right to give it to one group and not another.”

Villaraigosa said the raises awarded to DWP workers were out of his hands because they were negotiated by the administration of former Mayor James K. Hahn and were subject only to approval by the City Council.

“That matter had already been negotiated by the previous mayor and I didn’t stand in the way of it because I believed at the time, and still do, that there were actually legal issues involved,” he said, adding he believed the union could accuse the city of unfair labor practices.

The engineers and architects contract, he said, “is different. I have responsibility for this negotiation. We gave engineers and architects a very generous offer.”

The latest offer to the union would provide no raise for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 2004, a 2% raise retroactive to July 1, 2005, an additional 2.25% on Jan. 1, 2006, and 2.25% on Jan. 1, 2007, officials said. In contrast, the DWP contract provides a minimum cost-of-living increase of 3.25% each year, but allows salaries to increase by up to 6% each year to keep pace with inflation.

Parks, chairman of the council’s Budget and Finance Committee, said he believes the contract being offered to the Engineers and Architects Assn. is fair. He said the city budget cannot afford to provide the union with the same contract given employees at the DWP, which is financially self-sufficient and politically semi-independent from other city departments.

On Tuesday, the city’s Executive Employee Relations Committee, which is headed by the mayor, approved increasing the maximum pay levels allowed for the mayor’s chief of staff and deputy chief of staff. The mayor himself determines the actual salary his aides will be paid.

Allen was hired by the mayor for $170,000, but with the understanding he would receive $183,500, which is the amount he would have been paid if he had stayed as chief deputy to City Controller Laura Chick and received a cost-of-living raise, said Diana Rubio, a mayoral spokeswoman.

Villaraigosa declined to say whether he thinks Allen’s raise was appropriate, but said it was “something he’d negotiated when we hired him.”

In a confidential report to the employee relations committee obtained by The Times, City Administrative Officer Bill Fujioka recommended the increase for the two positions, arguing that the $174,369 maximum salary was lower than for the executive officers for the city controller, city attorney, chief legislative analyst and chief administrative officer.

Allen will earn more than Chief of Staff Robin Kramer, whose salary will remain at $174,363, said Rubio, who added that Kramer is content with her salary and is not seeking a raise.