Pay-Benefits Package May Avert Strike by RTD Drivers

The chief negotiators for the Southern California Rapid Transit District and its largest labor union announced Thursday that they had reached a “basis for a contract settlement” that would avert a threatened strike by 5,000 RTD bus drivers.

But Earl Clark, head of the United Transportation Union, and Roger Kundert, the district’s director of employee relations, stressed that while the two sides had agreed on a wage-and-benefits package and other bargaining issues, no tentative agreement has been reached.

Appearing at a joint news conference at the Pasadena Hilton, where negotiations have been held in a 12th-floor suite, both men said that “minor differences” remain to be ironed out--differences that they predicted would be resolved by early next week.

“There will be no strike by the UTU. I think the basis for a contract settlement is here, and we’re going to have a settlement,” Clark said.

“We have made a firm proposal on behalf of the board of directors and the leadership of the RTD to reach an agreement, and we think it will produce an agreement,” Kundert said.

The district’s top negotiator added that he hoped that news of a likely settlement would push the district’s other two unions, which represent mechanics and clerks, to come to terms in their own contract talks.

The bus drivers union in February authorized a strike after contract talks broke down. But a court order, which expires at midnight April 21, has prevented the bus drivers from walking off their jobs.

If an RTD strike can be avoided, it would mark the first time since 1969 that contract talks had not ended with a walkout against the district by at least one of the labor unions.

Neither Clark nor Kundert would disclose details about the proposed terms other than to say that they have agreed to a wage-and-benefit package and must still discuss some “minor differences” involving disciplinary rules.

“We’re pleased with the (proposed) settlement,” Clark said. He added that he thought 90% of the drivers would vote to ratify the agreement.

The union’s last public offer sought a 4% increase for each year of a two-year pact, as well as cost-of-living adjustments and fringe benefits. The RTD had countered with an undisclosed flat percentage increase over the costs of the current contract, leaving it to the union to decide how to divide the money.

Clark said Thursday that both sides had relaxed their bargaining positions over the previous 24 hours, helping to close the gap between the RTD and the union. He also noted that Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley and Gov. George Deukmejian have been pressing both sides to reach an accord and avoid a walkout that would inconvenience the district’s more than 1 million bus riders.

With the drivers apparently close to settling a contract, Kundert said the district would intensify its efforts to reach agreements with the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks, which represents about 740 RTD clerks, and the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents 1,800 mechanics and maintenance workers.

The clerks are presently engaged in negotiations, but no talks are currently scheduled between the RTD and the mechanics. The district and the mechanics union had reached what was believed to be a tentative settlement two weeks ago only to see it unravel in a last-minute dispute over interpretation of the cost-of-living adjustment clause.