Governor Clears Way for RTD Cooling-Off Period

A strike by Southern California Rapid Transit District bus drivers was temporarily averted today when Gov. George Deukmejian cleared the way for a 60-day cooling-off period and named a special fact-finding panel to investigate the labor dispute.

By choosing the five-member panel, Deukmejian invoked procedures to delay a scheduled strike that would affect more than a million riders. Drivers had voted to walk out after midnight Tuesday.

The panel has seven days to complete its inquiry. If Deukmejian believes that the two sides are still deadlocked after the board makes its findings, he can then ask Atty. Gen. John Van de Kamp to seek a court injunction setting up a 60-day cooling-off period.

But the governor, who did not immediately identify the panel members, made it clear in a stinging letter to RTD officials and the head of the drivers union that he was acting reluctantly because he feels that the issue should be settled locally.

‘Greatly Disturbed’

“Although I have appointed a board consisting of five members I am greatly disturbed by this request,” Deukmejian said at one point in his letter. The governor charged that the request for Sacramento to intervene “is being used by the parties to further delay and avoid good-faith negotiations.”

The district and the AFL-CIO United Transportation Union, which represents the RTD’s nearly 5,000 bus drivers, had asked Deukmejian to select the panel as a step toward reviving stalemated negotiations.

On Thursday, the drivers voted by a 91% margin to authorize a strike that would have started at 12:01 a.m Wednesday. It would have been the seventh such walkout in 15 years.

‘Pleased’ by News

“We are pleased that a strike will not take place tomorrow midnight,” said RTD President Nikolas Patsaouras.