Labor unrest widens in S. California

LOS ANGELES -- Labor unrest caused even more anguish across Southern California on Wednesday as contract bus drivers walked off the job in solidarity with striking transit workers and two courthouses were temporarily shut down as the result of a separate dispute.

Meanwhile, 70,000 grocery clerks from three chains spent their fourth day on picket lines in the southern and central part of the state with no sign of a new contract. Grocery workers in four other states -- West Virginia, Ohio, Kentucky, California and Missouri -- are also on strike.

Nearly half of the 427 Los Angeles County sheriff's deputies who work at jails and transport prisoners to court called in sick Wednesday, temporarily closing the Santa Monica and Beverly Hills courthouses, said deputy Johnie Jones.