Three months after a two-day strike failed to win better pay for its members, the union representing engineers, architects and other professionals who work for the city of Los Angeles is trying again, beginning with a walkout Sunday at Los Angeles International Airport.
The Engineers and Architects Assn., which represents more than 7,500 city employees, said this week that it is planning small, targeted strikes at different city departments on different days in the weeks ahead.
Sunday's planned one-day strike by about 200 members at LAX appears designed to gain maximum publicity while costing the union little. The strike may involve many office employees who are not scheduled to work Sunday. The most essential EAA workers at LAX, including 41 operational personnel who work on runways and 37 people who are involved in information technology, are barred by a court order from walking off their posts.
But EAA officials are planning picketing at the airport that could affect travelers. Members have been told to gather at a crosswalk near the entrance to Terminal 1. Their presence could slow traffic into and out of the airport on one of the busiest travel days of the year, union officials said.
Robert Aquino, EAA's executive director, declined to disclose dates or locations of future walkouts, but said similar one-day strikes would follow unless the city agreed to improve the pay of EAA workers.
The union represents accountants, chemists, forensic scientists and other technical professionals making from $36,000 to $126,000 annually, with an average income of $74,500.
"Things are going to start Sunday," Aquino said this week. "We still don't want to strike the city, and we understand Sunday is the busiest travel day at LAX because of returning flights from Thanksgiving. But once again, the city has to understand that there are consequences to its inactivity."
This summer, after EAA members had worked two years without a contract, the City Council implemented its final offer to the union: a 6.25% pay increase over three years, from 2004 to 2007.
The union strenuously objected to the action, including terms that gave members no raise at all for 2004, the first year covered by the terms. The city responded that unions representing 17,000 other civilian city workers accepted a contract with identical salary increases.
