RTD Drivers OK Contract, Longest Ever at 41 Months

Bus drivers for the Southern California Rapid Transit District voted overwhelmingly Monday to approve a new 41-month contract, the longest in RTD history.

The approval ended the threat of an imminent strike for 1.1 million daily bus riders who have endured five work stoppages in the last 13 years.

But a strike this summer remains a slim possibility because the RTD has yet to finally settle contracts with two smaller unions representing mechanics and clerks.

The drivers’ contract, which must still be approved by the RTD board, was ratified on a vote of 3,033 to 292.

“We’ve never had a ratification vote like this before,” said an ecstatic Earl Clark, general chairman of the 5,000-member bus drivers union. “It’s a beautiful package. We’re proud of it.”

The agreement, reached last week, includes a 21-cent hourly wage increase for drivers, additional cost-of-living hikes, and added health and retirement benefits for both full-time and part-time drivers.

The drivers also obtained changes in disciplinary rules while the financially strapped RTD won the right to use cheaper, part-time drivers more extensively.

RTD officials estimated that the overall cost to the district for the new contract will be $8.1 million--or about 5% above the $160 million it now pays in wages, salaries and other benefits to drivers.

RTD President Nikolas Patsaouras called the wage increase--which raises the top hourly pay of a driver from $12.79 to $13--a “moderate but fair one.”

“I am pleased with the overwhelming support from the drivers,” Patsaouras said. “It’s an affirmation that the contract is a fair one, and I believe that the board of directors will approve the contract.”

While board members are set to pass on the drivers’ contract on Thursday, about 740 RTD clerks are also expected to vote on their tentative settlement the same day. Last Saturday, negotiators for the RTD and the Brotherhood of Railway, Airline and Steamship Clerks Local Lodge 1315 agreed to terms that union leaders predicted would be approved.

“Under the circumstances, I think we cut a pretty good package for our members,” said Peter Duran, that union’s vice chairman. “I think it will carry.”

Duran declined to reveal the terms of the clerks’ settlement, but he said his members would receive a wage increase, a cost-of-living hike and job protection for those worried about the district’s growing reliance on automation.

Duran added that the district’s “shortage of funds” helped persuade the union to reach an accord.

RTD’s money problems include the scheduled loss of $43 million in local tax subsidies as well as a possible $48-million cut in federal operating funds--making for a gloomy financial picture that appears likely to propel all of the RTD’s labor unions to settle without a strike for the first time since 1969. The remaining holdout is the bus mechanics union which, earlier this month, appeared to be the first to have agreed on a new contract with the RTD. But a last-minute dispute over the interpretation of a cost-of-living clause torpedoed that settlement.

No date has been set for renewed negotiations, and the head of the mechanics union said he wants to see the dollar figures from the clerks’ and drivers’ agreements before sitting down again with the RTD.

“We’re still optimistic that we can reach an agreement without a work stoppage,” said Jerome Long, president of the Amalgamated Transit Union, Local 1277, which represents 1,800 mechanics and maintenance workers. “That (a strike) is not our goal and that’s not our intent.”

A strike by any of the RTD unions, which traditionally have refused to cross one another’s picket lines, would result in a loss of from $12 million to $18 million a day in wages, retail sales and other costs, according to the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce.

Strike Appeared Likely

For a time, a strike seemed likely.

Contract talks stalled in February, and the drivers union voted in a landslide to authorize a work stoppage. But a court imposed a 60-day cooling-off period, delaying any strike until after midnight Sunday.

But instead of walking off their jobs Monday, drivers spent the day casting ballots at their work sites for a contract that will cover them until June 30, 1988. Among its provisions are:

- An immediate wage increase of 21 cents that would place the $13 top hourly wage for drivers seventh among bus operators around the nation. The average hourly pay for drivers would increase from $11.97 to $12.18.

- Additional annual wage increases of 26 cents in 1986, 24 cents in 1987 and 5 cents for the first five months of 1988 as well as cost-of-living hikes stretched over the life of the contract.

The district, meanwhile, won concessions that will allow them to use part-time drivers for a maximum of 30 hours a week, rather than 25, and for weekend duties, which RTD officials say will cut down on the absenteeism rate among regular drivers unhappy about working weekend shifts.

HOURLY WAGES AMONG U.S. BUS DRIVERS

These are wages as of April 1, 1985, and fares as of February, 1985, as collected by the American Public Transit Assn.

CITY HOURLY WAGE BASIC FARE/PEAK HOUR FARE SAN JOSE $13.57 60/(NA) SAN FRANCISCO $13.40 60/(NA) SEATTLE ARTICULATED $13.32 55/(65) BUS DRIVERS* BOSTON $13.31 50/(NA) PORTLAND, ORE. $13.24 75/(NA) ARTICULATED DRIVERS* CHICAGO $13.19 90/(NA) RTD UNDER $13.00 85/(NA) NEW CONTRACT** MINNEAPOLIS $12.92 60/(NA) SEATTLE REGULAR $12.92 55/(65) BUS DRIVERS WASHINGTON, D.C. $12.82 75/(80) RTD UNDER THE $12.79 50/(NA) EXISTING CONTRACT TACOMA, WASH. $12.76 35/(60) PORTLAND, ORE. $12.74 75/(NA) REGULAR DRIVERS PITTSBURGH $12.66 $1.00/(NA) SACRAMENTO $12.65 60/(75) AC TRANSIT, OAKLAND $12.57 60/(NA) ORANGE COUNTY $12.54 60/(75) SAN DIEGO $12.48 80/(NA) LONG BEACH $12.40 50/(NA) EVERETT, WASH. $12.33 30/(NA) SPOKANE, WASH. $12.31 60/(NA) NEW YORK. $12.00 90/(NA) *Seattle and Portland have separate wage categories for drivers of regular buses and articulated buses, which are two-part buses that bend in the middle and are designed for high occupancy. **Under the new contract the $13 hourly wage would be retroactive to Feb. 1. The 85-cent fare is effective July 1.