Transit union calls off 25-day strike

May 28, 1946: Members of the Amalgamated Assn. of Street Electric Railway and Motor Coach employees voted to go back to work, ending a strike that had shut down Los Angeles’ buses and streetcars for 25 days.

Union members agreed to a 20-cent raise for one-man streetcar operators and bus drivers, raising their hourly pay from $1.03 to $1.23, or $12.63 adjusted for inflation. Two-man car operators’ hourly wages rose from 93 cents an hour to $1.10, or $11.30 adjusted for inflation.

The Times stressed the damage the strike had done: “Hundreds of thousands were put to extra expense for gasoline, tires and auto upkeep,” the newspaper said. “Many experienced acute suffering, many were distressed and more than 1,000,000 were at least inconvenienced.”