RTD Clerical Union OKs New Labor Contract, Thereby Averting a Strike

The RTD’s clerical workers reached an agreement with the transit district just before midnight Thursday on a new labor contract, thus assuring that Los Angeles’ largest bus system will continue to roll.

Details of the agreement were not immediately disclosed “and we are not giving out the results of the vote at this time,” said Arthur Garlick, one of the leaders of the clerical workers’ union. The clerk’s group, which represents 735 employees, was the last of the three RTD unions to reach an agreement.

The members of the Transportation Communication International Union--including clerks, telephone operators and data processors--cast their votes one day after the larger, stronger bus drivers’ and mechanics’ unions agreed to a new three-year pact.

In the end, the key issue in talks between the clerks and RTD management was overtime. “Overtime is very dear to some of them,” local President Oscar Gamboa said of the clerks.

RTD board member Jan Hall said the board accomplished much of its goals in the negotiations with the drivers, mechanics and clerical unions--particularly establishing rules to reward attendance.