AK - Judge OKs injunction against strike by city utility workers

A judge on Thursday ordered the union representing city water and sewer workers not to strike.

The Plumbers and Pipefitters Union Local 367 had announced its members would strike Anchorage Water and Wastewater beginning at 10 a.m. Friday.

City lawyers successfully argued in court that a strike could harm the public health in Anchorage.

The city administration and the union are at odds over wage increases in a three-year contract that is up for renewal.

An independent arbitrator decided in favor of the union on pay issues, but the Anchorage Assembly on Tuesday rejected the arbitrator's decision.

That led to a union vote Wednesday to authorize a strike.

But on Thursday, the union cooperated with the city's effort to get a court injunction disallowing the strike.

That's because sending the contract dispute to court puts the entire contract in the hands of the Superior Court judge who presided over the injunction hearing, Frank Pfiffner.

The union could come out ahead in the end with a judge deciding the outcome, both sides say.

A judge is likely to accept the ruling of the arbitrator, city attorney Dennis Wheeler said this week.

Under the court order issued Thursday, the union won't strike and the city won't impose its own last best offer as a contract for union workers at AWWU, said Chuck Dunnagan, lawyer for the union. Workers will continue under their existing contract.

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/09/01/2043642/city-utility-workers-plan-for.html#ixzz1Wu7NGdvm