Drivers, RTD Come to Terms : Tentative Contract OK Expected to Avert Strike

Negotiators for the Southern California Rapid Transit District and its 5,000 bus drivers reached a tentative settlement Wednesday that is expected to avert a threatened strike next week.

United Transportation Union General Chairman Earl Clark said he expects that 90% of his union’s members will approve the settlement in voting scheduled for Monday.

Clark said that the settlement includes a wage boost for drivers who now earn an average of $11.97 an hour. But neither he nor RTD officials would provide specifics.

41-Month Contract

After two days of intense talks, weary negotiators for the RTD and the union agreed in the early morning hours Wednesday to the 41-month contract that could avoid interruption of bus service for the district’s 1.1 million daily riders.

Both sides hailed the pact as a “a landmark agreement” and the longest in RTD history.

The final settlement, shaped during an all-night bargaining session at a Pasadena hotel, capped five months of on-again, off-again talks between representatives for the drivers and the five-county transit district.

If approved by rank-and-file drivers and the RTD board of directors, the settlement could help prod the district’s two other unions--representing mechanics and clerks--into similar agreements.

If that happens, it would mark the first time since 1969 that the RTD has arrived at labor contracts without a strike.

At a news conference Wednesday announcing the tentative accord, RTD Board President Nikolas Patsaouras called the accord “truly a landmark agreement, the longest contract in RTD’s history.”

He added that the contract provides “labor stability” during a time when the district faces substantial losses in local and federal transit subsidies.

This summer, the financially strapped RTD is scheduled to lose a $43-million subsidy from a half-cent county sales tax which will be diverted to support other transit projects.

That loss has prompted a scheduled increases in bus fares from 50 cents to 85 cents on July 1.

More Federal Cuts

The RTD could suffer another $48 million in federal cuts if President Reagan’s proposed budget cuts are enacted. This could prompt the RTD board to raise fares even higher.

That economic reality played a role in contract negotiations between the RTD and the drivers union, Clark said.

However, Clark said his members would receive a wage increase as well as cost-of-living hikes under the new contract.

“I think we negotiated a contract that . . . protects the buying power of our members during the life of the contract,” said Clark, who added that the pact also contains “major changes” in such areas as disciplinary rules and other issues.

In addition to those concerns, the two sides have been wrestling over proposed changes in retirement benefits, work rules, rest periods and the use of part-time drivers.

Clark said that while the union had no qualms about “a long-term contract” he was reluctant to provide any specifics about it because his members “should be the first ones to hear it.”

Clark said his union members will get a chance to review the entire contract at a meeting Sunday at the Hollywood Palladium and then will cast their ballots Monday in an election conducted by the state Mediation and Conciliation Service.

Voted Walkout

After a breakdown in contract talks last February, union drivers had voted overwhelmingly to walk off their jobs. But a court order delayed a strike for at least 60 days. The court-ordered “cooling-off period” expires at midnight Sunday, but both the RTD and the union have indicated that no walkout in advance of the vote is anticipated.

“I believe and I think the facts will show that after the ratification vote, it will be about a 90% ratification.” Clark said. “That’s how pleased we are about the settlement.”

Patsaouras also expressed confidence that his colleagues on the RTD board--who must also approve the contract--would approve the pact.

Patsaouras said the wage and benefits package is “within the budgetary guidelines of the board.”

In the past, those guidelines have included a 5% cap over the cost of the current contract.

RTD drivers presently make an average hourly wage of $11.97 and a top wage of $12.79. The union had sought a 4% annual raise as well as cost-of-living adjustments.

With the tentative agreement, attention will now focus on talks under way between the RTD and two other unions--the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks, which represent about 740 clerks and ticket takers, and the Amalgamated Transit Union, which represents 1,800 mechanics and maintenance workers.

‘Serve as Model’

“We hope this contract will serve as a model for achieving similar agreements with labor unions representing RTD clerks and mechanics,” Patsaouras said.

The mechanics union and the RTD had reached what appeared to be a tentative settlement nearly three weeks ago. But the agreement collapsed in a last-minute dispute over the correct interpretation of a cost-of-living clause.

Jerome Long, president of the mechanics union, said his members hope that the drivers’ contract will provide an impetus for settling their own dispute.

At their news conference, union and RTD officials were joined by Mayor Tom Bradley, who was forced to step into the 1982 negotiations, which ended in a five-day walkout. This time, Bradley had little to do with the talks and when asked about the settlement, he told reporters: “I’m ready to shout hallelujah.”