Tentative Agreement Reached by RTD, Clerks

Negotiators for the Southern California Rapid Transit District and its 700 clerks reached tentative settlement on a new contract Saturday, following by three days an agreement by district bus drivers and making a strike highly unlikely, officials for both sides said.

The clerks’ settlement leaves only the mechanics’ union still bargaining for an agreement with the RTD. Meetings between negotiators for the mechanics and the RTD are expected to resume this week, but no deadline for an agreement has been set, officials said.

Charles Coleman, international vice president of the Brotherhood of Railway and Airline Clerks, said he expected the 700 RTD clerks to approve the Saturday settlement when they meet Thursday.

“It (the agreement) provides for certain wage increases and COLAs (cost-of-living adjustments) and improvements in the working rules,” he said. “In the opinion of the negotiating committee, it has something for all our membership.”

Neither Coleman nor RTD board President Nikolas Patsaouras would divulge the specifics of the contract, pending the Thursday clerks’ meeting.

The clerks’ settlement resulted from 26 meetings since the beginning of the year, officials said. A marathon session ended at 2 a.m. Saturday, and negotiators returned to the table eight hours later, finally reaching agreement at 4:30 p.m., officials said.

The district’s drivers are scheduled to hear the terms of their proposed contract during a general membership meeting today and could vote on the agreement Monday. If the mechanics come to agreement and all three groups approve their negotiated settlements, it would mark the first time since 1969 that the RTD has arrived at labor contracts without a strike.

Patsaouras noted that distinction in a statement shortly after the latest settlement was announced.

‘Era of New Labor Negotiations’

“We are in the process of establishing an era of new labor negotiations . . . whereby we are able to negotiate and reach agreement without a strike.

“I’m very pleased, and I attribute that first to the leadership of our employees in recognizing the fiscal constraints that the district faces,” he said, “and, on the part of the district, the recognition that our employees deserve a good standard of living.”

This summer, the financially strapped RTD will lose a $43-million subsidy from a half-cent Los Angeles County sales tax, which will be diverted to other transit projects. The district could suffer another $48 million in federal cuts if President Reagan’s proposed budget cuts are enacted.

The loss of the local subsidy prompted a scheduled increase in bus fares from 50 cents to 85 cents, beginning July 1. Other increases are contemplated if the federal funds are lost.

The settlement of the second of three RTD unions could put more pressure on the lone holdout. The mechanics have worked without a contract since their last agreement expired earlier this year.

But RTD spokesman Jim Smart said that unlike the clerks, who gave the RTD a midnight Sunday deadline for agreement, the mechanics have yet to set a date for calling a strike.