State Tells Workers To End City Strike

The State Labor Relations Board last night ordered nearly 900 striking Cambridge public employees to return to work, less than 12 hours after their walkout had begun.

The commission voted unanimously to order the strikers, all members of Local 195, Independent Public Employees Association (IPEA), the city's largest labor union, to "cease and desist," and gave them until noon today to comply with the order.

Local 195 officials refused to comment last night on whether the walkout would continue. Union representatives left yesterday's Labor Commission hearing minutes after it began, charging the panel with pro-city bias.

The union struck yesterday in an effort to "bring the city back to the bargaining table," James Cassidy, president of Local 195, which represents public works employees, clerical aides, hospital orderlies and other workers, said yesterday.

No

The city has refused to negotiate in recent weeks with the union, saying Local 195, ratified a contract earlier this summer. The union reversed its vote a few weeks later, and demanded a resumption of collective bargaining, but the city instead asked the state to rule the original vote valid.

"If we have a signed contract, then we don't want to start bargaining again," Robert Healy, assistant city manager, said yesterday. "If the state tells us to go back to the table, then we will," he added.

Healy said that even if the strike continued, supervisory personnel could keep the city's 350th anniversary celebration, scheduled for this weekend, "running without a hitch."

"There were no problems yesterday--a little garbage in the streets, but Friday is the lightest collection day anyway," Healy said.

Striking workers did continue to man emergency areas of the city's hospitals--Local 195 does not represent doctors, but its membership does include all dietary aides and hospital orderlies. Union members also dug graves for at least two scheduled burials.

If the walkout continues today, the Labor Relations Board could go to court to ask for punitive measures against the union. "Most of the time, everyone wants to avoid going to court," Gail Menschel, a public information officer for the board, said yesterday.

The contract originally ratified by the union in a close vote called for wage increases averaging nearly $1000. Senior workers, who received comparatively large longevity bonuses, were happier with the pact than the city's younger workers.

The previous settlement, in late June avoided a strike deadline by only six minutes