Unions Set Transit Strike for July 18 : Labor: Walkout of MTA bus and rail workers is planned unless contract agreement is reached. Plans are readied in the event of a shutdown.

Unions representing 6,500 employees who operate bus and rail lines for the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Transportation Authority on Wednesday set a strike deadline of 12:01 a.m. July 18 unless an agreement is reached on new contracts.

Gov. Pete Wilson declined to seek a court order imposing a mandatory 60-day “cooling-off” period, but did not rule out such a move later. The MTA board asked Wilson not to seek the cooling-off period--apparently a tactic to pressure the unions.

Wilson said a cooling-off period “would not be the best course of action at this time.” He noted that an immediate cooling-off period would “exhaust the last remaining authority of the governor to intervene, leaving the critical bus routes vulnerable to a strike as students return to school in the fall.”

Negotiations continued Wednesday at an undisclosed hotel with a state mediator carrying proposals between the parties, who occasionally met face to face. Transit officials continued working on a strike plan, including training non-union workers to drive buses. Talks were scheduled to resume today.

“There’s been no movement,” said Goldy Norton, spokesman for the United Transportation Union. “We’re right where we were in April.”

Los Angeles County Supervisor Ed Edelman, chairman of the MTA board, said he was optimistic that an agreement could be reached. “I think we’re going to make some progress,” he said.

If a strike occurs, it would be the first shutdown of the nation’s second-largest bus system since 1982, when drivers walked off the job for five days. There have been four bus strikes in the last 20 years, including a 68-day walkout in 1974.

There are 1.3 million daily boardings on MTA buses, and 50,000 people ride the Blue Line and Red Line each day.

In the event of a strike, the MTA plans to operate several of the busiest bus lines immediately and continue service on the Blue Line trolley and Red Line subway. Bus and train service would operate only from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. weekdays.

A strike would not include Metrolink commuter rail service, which added cars to its trains Wednesday in preparation for a walkout, or other local transit lines. The Los Angeles City Council on Wednesday also authorized expansion of DASH shuttle bus lines, which operate Downtown, and commuter express buses, which run between Downtown and the suburbs, in the event of a strike.

Union officials have requested a 3% raise in addition to an existing cost-of-living increase. MTA officials, who are considering a fare increase to help ease a $126-million operating deficit, have offered no pay raise and are seeking to reduce the agency’s contribution for workers’ health benefits.

The MTA has gone on the offensive in the labor battle, taking out half-page ads in the Los Angeles Times asserting that the region’s bus drivers--earning an average of $68,000 a year--are among the highest-paid in the country.