Engineers, Architects Union Pickets At LAX

[Andrew Ong 1]

Horrible for the holiday travel season at LAX <_ :>

 

LOS ANGELES -- About 50 members of a city union seeking to reopen contract negotiations with the city were picketing at Los Angeles International Airport Sunday, on one of the busiest travel days of the year.

 

More members of the Engineers and Architects Association were expected to join the strike at Terminal 1 departures, according to the union representing some 7,400 public employees.

 

The strike -- aimed at heightening the profile of the union's goal to get raises comparable to those awarded Department of Water and Power employees -- came as holiday travelers jammed the airport at the conclusion of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

 

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

 

Some union employees -- the most essential LAX staffers, including operation personnel who work on runways and people involved in information technology -- are barred by a court order from going on strike. So, the picketers may be supplemented by people from other unions, an official said.

 

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