Clerical Workers Labor Relations

Federal labor officials on Wednesday supported charges that the Nordstrom department store chain engaged in unlawful efforts to eliminate union representation, including paying employees to attend anti-union rallies. A company official said the Seattle-based chain would move quickly to settle the most recent charges by the National Labor Relations Board in what has become a lengthy and messy workplace dispute.

In what one labor expert called a "bellwether election" regardless of the vote, workers at three Macy's stores in Costa Mesa have resoundingly rejected a proposal for union representation after a yearlong effort. In two days of voting, 541 of the 818 eligible employees at Macy's stores in South Coast Plaza and Crystal Court cast ballots against union representation while 149 voted for it. After the ballots were counted late Saturday, the anti-union forces were savoring their victory.

Negotiators for six major supermarket chains and 80,000 retail clerks and meat cutters from San Diego to Bakersfield expect to continue negotiations throughout the weekend in an effort to avoid a strike when the current contract expires at midnight Sunday. Stumbling blocks include issues of health care, wages and job security, spokesmen for both sides said Friday. In balloting earlier this week, union members voted overwhelmingly to give their leaders authorization to call a strike.

From a pure numbers standpoint, Bloomingdale's appears to be gaining the upper hand in its attempt to keep its Fashion Island Newport Beach stores from being organized by the Teamsters Union. The organizing effort got off to a fast start in early December, when employee-organizers gathered 62 signatures in two weeks asking that the Teamsters represent them in collective bargaining. But the campaign was put on hold this month until Teamsters officials could hold an informational meeting.

A sickout by court clerks continued across Los Angeles County for the second day Wednesday, seriously hampering operations in civil courtrooms. But with criminal courts operating almost normally, the job action failed to shut down the judiciary, as the clerks had hoped. More than two-thirds of the clerks and judicial assistants throughout Los Angeles County have participated in the strike, which is in response to lingering salary and job status disputes.

As the Los Angeles County court clerks' strike for higher wages dragged on Friday, the presiding judge of the Superior Court voiced concern that a continued walkout could lead to dismissal of criminal cases that have simply been overlooked. "Do I worry that something is slipping through the cracks? Sure," Presiding Judge Robert W. Parkin said. "So far I am not aware that any have. But it may be some [overlooked] cases are out there and attorneys will move to dismiss them."

Lockheed Office Workers' Union OKs Contract: The 1,200-member office workers' union at Lockheed Corp. has approved a new three-year agreement that gives each member a $3,100 bonus before the Christmas holidays. Under the agreement, union members will receive a $1,600 ratification bonus and a $1,500 bonus in place of raises equal to increases in the cost of living. In the second year of the contract, union members will get a $1,100 bonus instead of a full cost-of-living adjustment.

Employees at Kaiser Permanente represented by Office and Professional Employees International Union Local 30 voted overwhelmingly over the weekend to ratify a three-year contract that calls for wage increases ranging from 11% to 16% over the next three years. Local 30 members voted on the pact after management and union negotiators reached agreement. Just over 90% of the votes cast were in favor of the contract.

Informal discussions between Greyhound Lines and the union representing its 6,300 drivers continued in Scottsdale, Ariz., Wednesday but there appeared to be little chance of an agreement before the current contract expires at midnight tonight. Greyhound, the nation's largest intercity bus company, said it will operate on a limited schedule if the drivers go on strike. The company said it could be back to full operations with replacement drivers by the end of March.

The RTD's data processors, telephone operators and clerks will receive a 42-cent-per-hour pay hike over three years, along with normal cost-of-living increases, under a new pact approved near midnight Thursday. The 11th-hour approval--which also provided workers with a one-time $500 bonus--assured that Los Angeles' bus system would continue to operate.

The Teamsters union is trying to do what no labor organization has been able to accomplish in Southern California in decades: Organize a department store. The union's Local 848 of El Monte is asking about 290 workers at two Bloomingdale's stores at Fashion Island in Newport Beach to allow it to represent them. The local began circulating petitions Dec. 11 and so far has signed up 48 workers, said Mike Paul, a salesman in the luggage department at Bloomingdale's Home Store.

After eight days that dramatically slowed the nation's busiest court system, the first general strike by Los Angeles County court clerks in at least a quarter-century ended Saturday with a tentative agreement on new contracts for 600 employees. "Everyone will be back to work on Monday," said Karlene George, the president of the Superior Court clerks union, after a settlement was reached with negotiators for the courts.

As the Los Angeles County court clerks' strike for higher wages dragged on Friday, the presiding judge of the Superior Court voiced concern that a continued walkout could lead to dismissal of criminal cases that have simply been overlooked. "Do I worry that something is slipping through the cracks? Sure," Presiding Judge Robert W. Parkin said. "So far I am not aware that any have. But it may be some [overlooked] cases are out there and attorneys will move to dismiss them."

The scheduled resumption of salary talks between striking court clerks and negotiators for the Superior Court never materialized Thursday, leading angry union leaders to vow that the walkout will continue with expanded support from other branches of organized labor. Labor officials said the support would include, at least, picketing by other union members countywide and could grow to include rolling sickouts by other bargaining groups without new contracts.

As a strike by Los Angeles County court clerks entered its sixth day, a plea by the Superior Court for help seemed to backfire when employees ignored temporary transfers and joined the walkout. The action by downtown Municipal Court clerks, who appear to be joining their striking Superior Court colleagues on the picket lines in growing numbers, adds yet another problem for the nation's busiest court system.

A strike for higher pay by hundreds of Los Angeles County court clerks entered its second week Monday with no hint of a settlement and reports that the walkout was affecting everything from the processing of cases to the issuing of payments for court-appointed attorneys.

In a boisterous demonstration, members of the lone Los Angeles County employees union working without a contract picketed the Hall of Administration Tuesday and demanded a reopening of bargaining talks. About 200 hospital clerical workers chanted slogans and marched outside the Board of Supervisors chambers before entering the meeting room and asking supervisors to force county negotiators to return to the bargaining table.

After eight days that dramatically slowed the nation's busiest court system, the first general strike by Los Angeles County court clerks in at least a quarter-century ended Saturday with a tentative agreement on new contracts for 600 employees. "Everyone will be back to work on Monday," said Karlene George, the president of the Superior Court clerks union, after a settlement was reached with negotiators for the courts.

Hundreds of striking Los Angeles County court clerks rejected what county officials called their final pay offer Friday, setting the stage for the sort of lengthy walkout that both sides have predicted could create chaos in the nation's busiest judicial system.

With tensions rising as surely as the number of striking workers, a walkout over pay increases for 600 Los Angeles County court clerks continued Thursday as a new round of negotiations was scheduled.