Union pickets delay departure of NCL Star today

**Ally** · 11-30-2006, 05:40 PM

LOS ANGELES -- For a second day, members of the Engineers and Architects Association picketed at the Port of Los Angeles Thursday, delaying a Norwegian Star cruise ship and slowing work at two shipping terminals, a union spokesman said.

Meanwhile, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge rejected a request by the City Attorney's Office for a temporary restraining order that would prevent impromptu strikes by the EAA.

The union began picketing at the port Wednesday morning, prompting Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa to order the City Attorney's Office to take legal action, contending that the EAA did not provide sufficient notice prior to the strike. The mayor's office contends that unions must notify the city 60 hours before going on strike.

After hearing arguments from city lawyers today, Judge David P. Yaffe rejected the bid for a restraining order, but scheduled a Dec. 18 hearing to consider issuing a possible preliminary injunction. Yaffe said the law is not clear in the area and he did not want to issue an immediate order.

Deputy City Attorney Janis Barquist told Yaffe the city is not trying to prevent the union from striking.

"We're simply asking for reasonable notice of strike activity," Barquist said.

Adam N. Stern, an attorney for the association, said it is the city that is springing surprises, especially by the notice given just Wednesday that it would go to to court Thursday morning, while the union has been straightforward with the city about job actions.

"We told them more than a month ago that this was coming," Stern said.

Asked his reaction to Yaffe's ruling, Stern said outside the courtroom that the city was "trying to make up the law" with its arguments.

Deputy City Attorney Hugo S. Rossitter declined to comment on the decision.

Truck drivers belonging to the Teamsters union refused to cross the EAA's picket line this morning, preventing the Norwegian Star cruise line from stocking up on provisions, union spokesman Geoffrey Garfield said.

The truckers' supervisors must now travel from San Diego to make the delivery, Garfield said.

In addition, port pilots honored the union's picket line by refusing to pull shipments into terminals operated by Evergreen and China Shipping, Garfield said.

"We're very pleased that our union brothers and sisters with the Teamsters are honoring the EAA picket line," Garfield said. "It's very heartening to know we have that kind of support, and it shows that EAA members are not only vital to the port, but the entire city."

Port officials referred all calls to the mayor's office. Officials for Villaraigosa did not immediately return a phone call seeking comment.

"Workers have a right to protest, as you well know, but they don't have a right to end the movement of goods," Villaraigosa said Wednesday. "I want to emphasize that these employees of the city of Los Angeles are protesting peacefully, and the port is in full operation."

Union boss Robert Aquino said yesterday that the mayor does not have "any legal basis for this action" seeking a restraining order. The union sent a certified letter on Oct. 27 to the mayor's office as notification of the strike, which was also mentioned during a discussion with a representative of the mayor's office on Nov. 20, he said.

The certified letter warned that the EAA was planning to strike, but did not cite specific dates or locations, according to officials in the mayor's office.

The city has a contingency plan to fill vacancies created by the picketing, according to the mayor's office. The Los Angeles Harbor Department has 859 employees, about 400 of whom are represented by the EAA.

EAA employees picketed at Los Angeles International Airport for about four hours on Sunday, one of the busiest travel days of the year.

The union -- which includes about 7,400 public employees -- represents accountants, chemists, forensic scientists and other technical professionals earning $36,000 to $126,000 annually. The average city worker represented by EAA earns about $74,500 a year, according to city officials.

The union wants raises comparable to those awarded to Department of Water and Power employees who, in 2005, got an annual 3.25 percent raise everyyear for five years. A cost-of-living adjustment allows the increases to rise to as much as 6 percent a year, if inflation is that steep.

In August, about 800 city employees represented by the EAA walked off their jobs as part of a two-day job action. Union members had been without a contract for about a year when the City Council imposed its "last, best and final" offer.

The imposed contract -- an option available to the city under state law once an impasse has been declared -- gave EAA workers a retroactive 4 percent raise and an additional 2.25 percent pay raise in January.

Union officials noted earlier this week that the city had just approved a five-year contract for port pilots that will give them a 7.5 percent initial raise, along with a 3 percent bump over each of the next five years

(AP)