MTA Talks Continue; Strike Averted

Negotiators for the Metropolitan Transportation Authority and its bus and train operators’ union agreed Monday to a one-week contract extension, averting a possible transit strike until at least July 8.

The agreement came just hours before the United Transportation Union contract was to expire at midnight Monday. MTA negotiators reported progress in the Los Angeles talks.

Talks also continued between the MTA and representatives of the mechanics’ Amalgamated Transit Union and the clerks’ Transportation Communications Union.

Gov. Pete Wilson can seek a court order imposing a 60-day cooling-off period to delay a strike. Unlike Bay Area Rapid Transit officials in San Francisco, who successfully got the governor to delay a strike there Monday, the MTA has urged Wilson not to intervene here for fear that delaying a walkout until September would hit students returning to school.