MTA Strike Talks Collapse; No End to Walkout Seen

LOS ANGELES - Talks between striking bus and rail operators and the Metropolitan Transportation Authority collapsed Tuesday (Sept. 26), which means the crippling Los Angeles transit strike could continue for many more days, if not weeks, according to the Los Angeles Times.

"There has been no progress . . . in these negotiations," said Miguel Contreras, chief of the Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, after he and other union leaders broke off the talks Tuesday afternoon and walked away from the bargaining table for the second time in two weeks. "It has become apparent that no agreement can be reached at this time," he said.

James Williams of the bus and rail operators' 4,400-member United Transportation Union said he was "saddened very much by the turn of the events.

"I thought we had some basis and a criteria set to start negotiations toward settlement," Williams said. "That didn't happen."

Rather than return to the Pasadena Hilton for more talks, Williams said, he would be walking a picket line today.

In response to the breakdown, Cardinal Roger M. Mahony issued a stinging rebuke to both sides. He called on the governor, the mayor, the City Council and the Board of Supervisors to "step forward at once and demand" that MTA and union leaders accept a negotiated settlement quickly.

"The continuation of this strike, now passing 11 days, is unconscionable and is wreaking havoc on the poorest of our families, employees, and small-business owners," Mahony said. Both sides, he said, have "a serious moral and ethical responsibility to end this strike as soon as possible."

The strike began at 12:01 a.m. Sept. 16, hours after drivers abruptly walked out of negotiations in a similar fashion.

In a statement released by his office, Mayor Richard Riordan, who sits on the MTA governing board, criticized the drivers for walking out a second time. Riordan, back in Los Angeles after a European vacation, was himself criticized last week for bicycling in France during a critical time in the negotiations.

"Taxpayers and transit-dependent Angelenos should be outraged by the union's refusal to negotiate and provide any meaningful counterproposal to the MTA," Riordan said.

Both sides accused the other of turning away from what they consider legitimate contract proposals.

The drivers said their action was prompted by the MTA board's rejection of a contract proposal that emerged after three days of talks sparked by the intervention of Assemblyman Herb Wesson (D-Culver City) as a fact finder and the continuing efforts of Stephen J. Smith, director of the state Department of Industrial Relations.

"We did provide both parties a proposal. That proposal didn't work," Smith told reporters after the talks collapsed. He urged both sides to return to the bargaining table.

As for management's side, Riordan said, "MTA negotiators have provided the UTU with a detailed proposal for a new contract that includes a $34-million wage increase, but for the past six months the UTU has stubbornly refused to negotiate."

"The UTU is holding the public and its members hostage," Riordan said. "The MTA renews its offer to get drivers and service back on the street while we negotiate a viable contract that provides fair pay raises to our drivers while helping MTA reduce costs."

Riordan reiterated management's contention that the MTA is facing huge deficits in the future and must bring down labor costs.

Wesson's decision to join the talks last weekend, at the urging of Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg (D-Sherman Oaks), led to a degree of optimism that the deadlock might be broken.

The strike, now in its 12th day, has been having an ever widening effect on the working poor, elderly, disabled and students who make up the bulk of its 450,000 weekday bus and Metro Rail riders.

Business leaders, with the strike already hurting sales and creating absenteeism among employees, have predicted that the effects of the walkout will get worse as the strike continues.

Both the county Department of Health Services and a network of privately operated community clinics are reporting as many as twice the normal number of canceled appointments.

For their part, transit riders have been walking, begging rides, taking to bicycles or simply staying at home since the strike began.

Traffic on local freeways is also up during peak morning and evening commute times, according to the California Department of Transportation. Although Caltrans said freeway traffic volume is up less than 5%, that can be significant on freeways that can average 200,000 to 300,000 cars and trucks a day.

In a sign that many former bus or train riders may be car-pooling, Caltrans reported that traffic in diamond lanes is up 5% to 10% on most major freeways in the Los Angeles area. There has been a 20% increase in diamond lane traffic on the San Diego Freeway in the South Bay, with the same jump reported on the El Monte Busway on the San Bernardino Freeway.

No new talks were scheduled, meanwhile, after drivers broke off the talks Tuesday. Numerous issues reportedly divide the two sides.

Among them are the MTA's desire to change work rules, reduce overtime by as much as 15% and change the union's pension plan.

Another problem that has been casting a cloud over negotiations is legislation awaiting Gov. Gray Davis' signature that would allow creation of separate transit districts in the San Fernando and San Gabriel valleys.

Davis has until Saturday to act on the bill.

The measure, which is ardently opposed by San Fernando Valley business interests, would require any breakaway transit district to honor existing MTA labor contracts.

A confidential MTA management document obtained by The Times lists breakaway transit districts, called "transit zones," as a top issue for unions and MTA management.

While breaking off their talks Tuesday, both sides continued to take shots at each other.

Julian Burke, the MTA's chief executive, said, "We cannot negotiate with our self. Based on my experience, the strike would be settled in 48 hours if the parties would go behind closed doors and pull up chairs."

"This strike shouldn't have happened in the first place. It shouldn't be continuing," Burke said.

The AFL-CIO's Contreras called on the public to pressure elected leaders, including Riordan.

"Tell them to instruct the negotiating team to come to the table and work off the impartial mediators' proposal," Contreras said. "When they do that, you'll see this union here day and night."

Williams said, "I am fed up. I have all I can take. It looks like we are going to have to walk the picket lines till some local politicians and some state politicians get it."

Sounding personally distressed by the breakdown in talks, Williams said, "This is not going to work. We are not going to accept a contract on the backs of operators I represent. We are going to stay out here till we get the job done."

Union members plan to stage a rally on the front lawn of City Hall Friday, and hope Riordan will address them. Williams said he believes that Riordan may be the only official in California who can settle the strike.

Striking drivers, who are supported on picket lines by MTA mechanics, clerical workers and supervisors, say they will refrain from working for as long as it takes to get new contracts.

Even before the talks broke down Tuesday afternoon, union members said they were in a fighting mood over anti-union radio advertisements being run by the MTA that draw attention to such issues as drivers' pay.

The ads ran even after both sides agreed to a news blackout over the weekend, in part to end public finger-pointing.

"We pass under a sign every day when we go to work that says, 'Through these doors pass the finest operators in the world,' " said Ray Zepeda, an MTA driver who was walking a picket line on Mission Road east of downtown Los Angeles Tuesday.

"That's every day except when we are in contract negotiations. Then we become mud and dirt to them."

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CALIFORNIA: Talks Break Down on Day 11 of Los Angeles Transit Strike

LOS ANGELES - Talks broke off Tuesday (Sept. 26) between union representatives and the Metropolitan Transit Authority, dashing hopes for a settlement soon of a strike that has left nearly a half million people struggling to get around, CNN reported.

"I am saddened very much by the latest events," said James Williams, president of the United Transportation Union, which represents bus and train drivers." I don't really know where we go from here. Looks like at this time we're in for the long haul. I'm fed up -- looks like we are just going to have to walk the picket lines. My members are losing money. Ever day it is getting worse, than getting better."

At a later news conference, Julian Burke, chief executive officer for the MTA, called on the union to negotiate "in good faith."

Burke suggested that the strike could be settled in 48 hours if both sides would talk. "I'm appealing personally to James Williams to allow our employees to come back to work and to get out our buses and trains into service," he said. "This has become an impossible situation and it shouldn't be that way."

About 4,300 bus drivers and rail operators for the MTA walked off the job September 16, and about 650 clerks are honoring their picket line.

Representatives of the MTA and the striking union members met behind closed doors for more than nine hours Monday in an effort to break the deadlock. Although the state-mediated talks ended without resolution, both sides agreed to meet again Tuesday.

The MTA, which says it will have a $438 million operating deficit over the next 10 years if expenses aren't cut, wants to hire more part-time operators and drivers at entry-level wages and cut overtime costs by 15 percent.

Miguel Contreras, United Transportation Union spokesman, said union representatives tried hard in the past three days to reach an agreement.

The drivers want more money for pensions and for a health care trust administered by the union.

The MTA has offered raises of 2.7 percent a year over the next three years; the union wants 4 percent.

Drivers blame the MTA's deficit on costly building projects and say they shouldn't have to pay for the agency's funding mistakes. The MTA blames generous worker contracts signed in past decades.

The last transit strike in Los Angeles was a nine-day walkout in 1994.

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CALIFORNIA: Los Angeles Transit Talks Break Off

PASADENA, Calif. (AP) -- Talks between Los Angeles' regional transit agency and the union representing striking bus and rail operators broke off Tuesday with each side denouncing the other for the 11-day strike's latest impasse, the Associated Press reported.

Negotiations ended despite a proposal offered by state fact finders to get the two sides to sit down face to face.

James Williams, chief negotiator for the United Transportation Union, blamed the Metropolitan Transportation Authority for refusing to consider the fact finders' points of discussion.

"I am saddened by the latest turn of events," Williams said during a news conference. "I thought we had criteria set that could be the focus of further negotiations."

MTA officials, in a news conference immediately after the union announcement, denied rejecting the fact finders' offer.

"The union said they were not negotiating, and we can't negotiate with ourselves," MTA chief executive officer Julian Burke said. "This shouldn't have happened. It's an impossible situation."

The MTA's 4,300 bus drivers and rail operators make an average of $50,000 a year.

MTA officials also faulted union representatives for not responding in writing to the agency's original contract offer.

"We have never received a counteroffer," said Don Knabe, a Los Angeles County Supervisor and MTA board member. "We're offering $43 million in pay raises and want $30 million in work rule relief."

That position was echoed by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan, who said: "Taxpayers and transit-dependent Angelenos should be outraged by the union's refusal to negotiate and provide any meaningful counterproposal to the MTA."

Union and transit agency officials were in separate rooms most of the previous three days. Williams said the negotiators were face-to-face for no longer than 30 minutes during that period -- as state mediators shuttled between the two camps in the Pasadena Hilton hotel, 10 miles north of downtown Los Angeles.

Williams wouldn't reveal details of the state proposal, but said the union was willing to discuss it -- even though some aspects were unacceptable.

"I'm fed up," he said. "I've had all that I can take. It looks like we'll have to walk the picket lines."

He said the drivers union planned to hold a rally at Los Angeles City Hall on Friday urging the mayor and county supervisors to pressure the MTA board.

Bus drivers and rail operators walked off the job Sept. 16, with MTA clerks and mechanics honoring their picket lines. The strike has left some 450,000 commuters scrambling for alternate transportation.

Hardest hit by the strike have been the region's working poor, with MTA surveys showing that Southern California bus and rail commuters earn an average of $15,000 a year.

The MTA is looking for ways to close a projected $438 million operating deficit over the next 10 years.

It wants to hire more part-time operators and drivers at entry-level wages and cut overtime costs 15 percent. The bus drivers and train operators, who say they are fighting to preserve middle-class jobs, want more money for pensions and for a health care trust administered by the union.

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CALIFORNIA: Why L.A. transit strike matters to more than city's poor

LOS ANGELES - CNN correspondent Greg LaMotte writes: What are the worst two words a person could utter in New York City? How about, "transit strike"?

Wait. Don't panic. There has not been a transit strike in New York in 20 years. Why?

Maybe it is because the mass transportation system there really is for the masses. Anyone and everyone, including power brokers and politicians, routinely use the subways and buses in New York. The city's lifestyle revolves around its mass transit system.

Maybe that is why New York has adopted laws that make it extraordinarily difficult for mass transit workers to strike.

Such is not the case in Los Angeles.

In the nation's second largest city few people seem to care that some 4,300 bus and train operators went on strike Saturday, and fewer people are affected. Many residents initially did not even know a strike had begun as they waited at stops for buses and trains that did not come.

The fact is, mass transportation in Los Angeles is not for the masses.

In car-happy southern California, mass transportation is not that important to the people who make policy in Los Angeles, according to Wendell Cox, a former top official with the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority and now a consultant to transit unions.

Mass transit here is primarily for the poor. A majority of the estimated half-million users of the city's mass transit system earn around $15,000 or less a year, and 75 percent of them do not own a car, according to the MTA.

What is more, just 3 percent of commuters here rely on mass transit.

So when it comes to Los Angeles, the people who can least afford a transit strike are the ones who are being affected the most. Yet these are the people with the least political clout.

Maybe that is why, at least in part, there have been seven transit strikes in Los Angeles over the past 30 years. In the 1970s, union workers went on strike almost every time they were negotiating new contracts.

The current strike-related issues in Los Angeles could have ramifications for transportation systems nationwide.

Here is why. In rapidly expanding cities such as Phoenix, Arizona, and Atlanta, Georgia, transportation officials are making decisions about how to expand their transportation infrastructures.

New York City, with its massive bus and subway system, provides one example. Los Angeles, which decades ago chose to emphasize freeways, provides another.

For cities contemplating their own transit needs, some transportation experts in Los Angeles say the strike here should make city planners nationwide aware of what can be added costs of providing safe, reliable, bus and rail service.

The latest strike in Los Angeles is primarily over the issue of overtime pay. The MTA says it faces a shortfall of $438 million over 10 years unless something is done.

The MTA wants to cut back on overtime in order to save $23 million over three years. The striking United Transportation Union says the MTA should raise fares. The city says those who use the system cannot afford a fare increase. The union says it cannot afford to lose overtime.

In 1974, when the city's longest such strike lasted 68 days, transportation unions got the city to agree to pay bus and rail operators for hours between split shifts. The operators do not drive buses or trains during those hours between the two blocks of time of their workdays, but they do get paid for them.

That is where a lot of overtime enters the books. And that issue is now one of the main sticking points in Los Angeles because city officials would like, at the very least, to cut back on pay for the hours between split shifts.

Some MTA officials suggest these kinds of costs, along with the potential costs of union strikes, should be taken into consideration by city planners and state legislators nationwide.

The fact is that any transportation system has its advantages and disadvantages.

There are overcrowded subways that sometimes fail in New York City. And there are overcrowded freeways in Los Angeles that often cause major headaches and lots of pollution.

But regardless of a city's transportation system, most people, regardless of where they live in a city, seem to figure out a way to make it work for them.

One way or the other the transit strike in Los Angeles will be resolved, and the buses and trains will run again. That will certainly be good news to those who depend on it.

For many others here, the transit strike will have been only a story they heard about on the local news.

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