CALIFORNIA: L.A. transit strike negotiators mull union's latest plan

LOS ANGELES -- Metropolitan Transit Authority negotiators will meet Tuesday to decide whether to accept a union proposal aimed at ending a three-week-old bus and train strike.

The proposal is the latest by the United Transportation Union, which represents 4,300 bus and rail operators who have been on strike since September 16. The union action has left 450,000 regular commuters looking for other ways to get to work.

"Our negotiating team will go over the proposal tonight and we'll meet again tomorrow at 1 p.m.," MTA representative Ed Scannell said. "We'll cost it out - figure out the dollars and cents."

The two sides met briefly Monday afternoon when the MTA asked the union for clarification on its plan.

Monday's offer was the union's response to a proposal made last Friday by the MTA.

A sticking point in the talks continued to be an MTA plan to shave $23 million off the cost of overtime to the drivers. The union has rejected this proposal several times.

Once a settlement is reached, it will take at least 24 hours to get the city's buses running and at least two days to get the trains running, officials have said.

With 2,200 MTA buses, Los Angeles' system is the third- largest in the country, behind New York and New Jersey.

A second big headache for area residents looms as the Service Employees International Union Local 660, which has threatened a general walkout by county employees on Wednesday, said negotiations have stalled.

Judy Hammond, county spokeswoman, said behind-the-scenes talks continued. The union wants a 15.5 percent pay hike over three years, while the county has offered 9 percent.

Union spokesman Mark Tarnawsky said the county has pledged not to negotiate unless the union pledges to discontinue rolling strikes, that last week denied residents a number of services ranging from birth and marriage licenses to dog catchers. Saturday, maintenance workers refused to clean bathrooms at county beaches.

County offices were closed Monday for the Columbus Day holiday, but job actions by nurses, technicians and others were planned for Tuesday at the region's largest hospital and other health care facilities.

The general strike could affect a vast array of public services in the 4,083-square-mile county, home to 10 million people.

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CALIFORNIA: MTA reduced its pay offer, union claims

LOS ANGELES -- As the strike against the Metropolitan Transportation Authority reached its 24th day Monday, leaders of the bus drivers union alleged that management is trying to prolong the walkout by reducing the proposed pay hike in its latest offer.

With the parties at a stalemate, the drivers' United Transportation Union said the latest proposal from the MTA seems to show a hardening of the agency's position.

"They are now offering us 25% less than a week ago," said Goldy Norton, spokesman for the union.

The MTA had offered drivers 2.7% in each of the next three years, but Norton said the MTA in its latest proposal is offering a 2% pay raise annually. Norton said the new proposal did offer a different approach to pensions, but the union believes that proposal would leave its members worse off.

MTA spokesman Ed Scannell said the latest proposal given to the union Friday was "a better overall package than any prior proposal."

Some union officials, however, privately groused Monday that the move was yet another sign that the agency had a larger agenda that includes forcing the union to accept the dissolution of the existing MTA into small transit zones.

The drivers union wants to maintain existing protections against further privatization of suburban bus service, believing that legislation recently signed by Gov. Gray Davis will not give it the safety net of its current contract.

The MTA's management wants to keep open the option of creating a transit zone in the San Fernando Valley, or expanding or creating one in the San Gabriel Valley.

Talks have sputtered along at such a slow pace that both sides privately are considering the option of a federal mediator. Face-to-face talks in the last few days have barely lasted an hour a day.

The union offered another formal proposal Monday, countering the MTA offer made Friday.

Meanwhile, the mechanics union, the Amalgamated Transit Union, did not hold talks with the MTA on Monday because of the Yom Kippur holiday. Mechanics union chief Neil Silver has set a deadline of midnight tonight for resolving the contract deadlock.

Silver asked his members last Tuesday to go back to work for seven days while he continued to try to get a contract. But, he said, if the strike is not resolved, he will ask the 1,860 mechanics to walk.

"This will be the strike to beat all strikes if that happens," he said.

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