Several DMV offices closed, but state government escaped largely unscathed Monday from a Columbus Day contract dispute that had union leaders threatening to shut down operations.
Government officials said the day was largely uneventful.
"Of our 168 field offices, 164 opened and stayed open," said DMV spokesman Mike Marando. While some offices in San Francisco scaled back services, he said, "This was largely a non-event."
Service Employees International Union Local 1000 offered a different assessment, saying eight Department of Motor Vehicles offices in Southern California and the Bay Area were closed.
They said an additional 45 statewide opened late because of staffing shortages created by the union's call for employees to take Columbus Day off.
"It's a victory," Local 1000 President Yvonne Walker said.
It's not surprising that the two sides would have different versions of what happened on Columbus Day. They've publicly traded jabs for weeks over whether it's still a state holiday.
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and the Legislature in February took Columbus Day and Lincoln's Birthday off the state's list of 14 paid days off that employees get each year. Dropping the two holidays saves the state more than $26 million annually in premium pay, the administration says.
The SEIU and the governor also negotiated a new contract that dropped the holidays in exchange for two personal days off. But Republican lawmakers twice blocked the new contract, and Schwarzenegger backed away from it, citing the state's financial crisis.
Walker last month told union members that the expired contract's "evergreen clause" and state law keep the old pact's terms in force – including the two holidays erased by the new law.
The state warned employees that they would be insubordinate if they took the day off without clearing it first, and that they'd be disciplined and their pay docked.
Local 1000 represents 95,000 state workers across nearly all the government's 150 departments, but there are no statewide data available yet on how many took the day off without management's permission. Employers won't report AWOLs until later this month, when payroll adjustments go to the state controller's office.
DMV kept track, however, and reported Monday that about 560 of its 4,300 employees had unauthorized absences on Monday.
Those numbers will be closely watched. Although Walker characterized the dispute as a moral issue over the value of contractual agreements, there's little doubt that a strong showing would encourage union leaders to organize other actions to win approval of the stalled contract. A weak showing would hobble those efforts.
Lorna Mitchell, an Employment Development Department employee, went to work on Monday and plans to file a grievance. Most of the workers in her Fresno office are doing the same thing, she said.
"We're just not willing to take a chance," she said. "I'm not willing to get an adverse action in my file over this."
Call The Bee's Jon Ortiz, (916) 321-1043.
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